American Jewish Committee Launches Campaign For Red Cross Recognition Of Magen David Adom

American Jewish Committee
Friday, 22 January 1999

The American Jewish Committee today launched a grass-roots campaign to secure for Israel's Magen David Adom Society full membership in the International Red Cross Movement.

As a first step, the American Jewish Committee is encouraging tens of thousands of citizens across the country to send post cards to the presidents of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the American Red Cross, among others, urging them to press for international recognition of the Star of David as a humanitarian symbol and to keep politics out of humanitarian relief.

"The cross of Christianity and the crescent of Islam are internationally accepted as humanitarian symbols, but the ancient symbol of the Jewish people - the Star of David - is not," said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

"Israel is the only country in the world whose humanitarian symbol has ever formally been rejected," said Harris. "That is unacceptable. It must change."

Since the Magen David Adom Society, Israel's humanitarian service organization, first applied for membership in 1949, the Red Cross Movement, which comprises the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, has refused to accept its symbol, a red Star of David.

"It is outrageous that 50 years later Magen David Adom is still denied full membership in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies while its activities in Israel and around the globe enjoy the highest respect," Harris said.

Magen David Adom responded within hours of last year's bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, dispatching highly trained rescue and medical teams who entered collapsed buildings and saved dozens of lives.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org