Muslim nations challenge Red Cross move on Israel 

By Patrick Baert
June 20, 2006
Yahoo News
Original Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060620/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinian_060620175325;_ylt=AkqQrO5gWnYxzxyxEqIy6UyaOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

(AFP) An international conference was struggling to end a 56-year stalemate over Israel's membership of the global Red Cross movement, after Muslim nations launched a politically-inspired challenge to a proposed settlement.
Members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference held up the gathering on procedural grounds for several hours, and the atmosphere was tense, according to a participant.
The meeting was expected to resume Wednesday, as mediators continued the hunt for a way to avoid a divisive vote.
Earlier Tuesday, Pakistan and Tunisia had said that the 192 signatory nations of the Geneva Conventions should formally reaffirm that the movement's rules apply in all Arab Territories occupied since 1967, namely the Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan and the Lebanese Shebaa Farms.
The proposal said that they fall within the respective jurisdiction of the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese Red Crescent societies. In effect, it marked a diplomatic protest against Israeli control of the three areas.
Pakistan and Tunisia proposed adding the wording -- which was unacceptable to Israel -- to a broader resolution on whether to change the statutes of the international Red Cross and Crescent movement to add a new red crystal emblem.
Changing the statutes would cement a deal that emerged from a conference last December, which capped painstaking negotiations to end a decades-old row and allow Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA, Red Star of David) into the international network.
The MDA was officially not recognized in the Geneva Conventions, even though Israel is a signatory, because its emblem did not conform with longstanding rules allowing only a cross or a crescent.
Failed efforts six years ago to end the dispute prompted a boycott by the American Red Cross which held back 36 million dollars in contributions to the international movement.
The Palestinian Red Crescent was also barred because the movement's statutes only allow relief societies from sovereign states to join. That rule is also up for change at the conference.
The MDA and Palestinian Red Crescent have long worked together on the ground, and have signed an accord to formalize years of practical cooperation.
The new crystal -- in fact a red outline of a square standing on edge -- is also meant to have a wider role for Red Cross and Crescent humanitarian workers in other areas where there is a need for a emblem that is free from religious or political connotations.
At the opening session Tuesday, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey urged delegates to steer clear of politics and stick to humanitarian issues.
The Pakistani and Tunisian proposal, however, reopened a dispute from last December's gathering, where opposition from Arab and other Muslim states to a consensus deal eventually forced a vote.
French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said he was cautiously optimistic that consensus could be reached this time.
Last year's conference eventually backed the new emblem 98-27, paving the way for a statute change. Ten signatory states abstained and the rest did not take part.
Opposition was led by Syria, which pushed unsuccessfully for an accord on humanitarian aid in the Israeli-occupied Golan heights as a condition for joining the consensus on the new emblem.
Damascus says Israel does not look after the health of the 25,000 Syrian citizens who live in the Golan heights, which Israel annexed in 1981 after taking over in 1967. Israel dismisses the claim, just as it rejects those related to Palestinian and Lebanese areas. 
The Pakistani and Tunisian proposal said that any national society wishing to join the global movement must respect territorial rules, in a thinly-disguised reference to the MDA.