- For years, military medics and humanitarian aid workers have relied on the protective power of the red cross and red crescent as they braved battle zones to help the wounded. Soon they&${esc.hash}39;ll have a third emblem at their disposal to tout their neutrality: the red crystal.
Planned changes to Geneva Conventions governing the rules of war will allow use of the crystal - a diamond-shaped red frame on a white background - as a new protective emblem stripped of any religious or political significance.
The crystal could be a boon for aid workers and medics operating in a war-torn country like Eritrea, equally divided between Christians and Muslims.
It will also have concrete implications for one of the world&${esc.hash}39;s biggest humanitarian networks, settling a long-running dispute over Israel&${esc.hash}39;s membership in the Red Cross Red Crescent movement and unfreezing valuable American funding that has been held back over the issue.
"The existing emblems don&${esc.hash}39;t suit a small number of countries," said Ian Piper, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which oversees the Geneva Conventions and provides humanitarian support in conflict zones.
"If we&${esc.hash}39;re serious about universality and inclusiveness, we have to do something to make it possible for them to become full members of the movement. This will allow that to happen, without proliferating a whole range of national signs, which would reduce the effectiveness of the emblem."
The Red Cross Red Crescent movement consists of about 180 national societies primarily concerned with emergency response and training within their own countries. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the official umbrella body that ties them all together.
Until now, Israel&${esc.hash}39;s Star of David Society, or Magem David Adom (MDA), has only had observer status in the IFRC because its symbol - the Star of David - is not recognised under Geneva Conventions.
A handful of other national societies are also limited to observer status either because they aren&${esc.hash}39;t aligned to fully recognised states or because their emblems aren&${esc.hash}39;t recognised. These include societies in Eritrea, Palestinian territories, Tuvalu and Comoros.
The Swiss government - the depository state of the Geneva Conventions - says that by the end of the year it will call a conference of the 192 countries who are signatories with the aim of establishing the red crystal as an official alternative.
The Swiss were on the verge of holding a similar meeting in late 2000 but dropped the idea because of the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising against Israeli occupation, fearing the conference could descend into a clash over Middle East politics.
"It has been a very long effort ... to get the state of Israel and Magen David Adom as equal members of the Red Cross Red Crescent movement," said the director of MDA&${esc.hash}39;s international department, Yonatan Yagadovsky.
SERIOUS CONSEQUENCESThe new emblem will eventually allow both MDA and Israeli military medical staff to use the crystal on its own as a protective symbol in conflicts to show the bearer is a neutral humanitarian player. The Star of David will still be used inside the crystal as MDA&${esc.hash}39;s logo within Israel&${esc.hash}39;s borders.
"Do you seriously think the governments of the world would agree to Israel alone having its own sign without opening the door to all the others?" said the ICRC&${esc.hash}39;s Piper. "To the red wheel of India, the red sun of Japan, to whatever the Chinese might want or the Brazilians might want? I don&${esc.hash}39;t think they would."
Sensitivities over the use of emblems came to the fore after the Indian Ocean tsunami, when the Israeli MDA provided relief in Sri Lanka. When societies work abroad they consult the national society in the host country about the best emblem to use. In this case, MDA worked under the joint emblem of the cross and Star of David.
The dispute over Israel&${esc.hash}39;s membership has had serious financial consequences for the IFRC, with the American Red Cross withholding ${esc.dollar}5 million a year in membership dues to the IFRC since 2000 in protest over what it saw as discrimination against the Israeli society. It has also withheld overheads to the ICRC.
The loss of funding -- 25 percent of the IFRC secretariat&${esc.hash}39;s budget -- led to 15 job losses in July 2002.
American Red Cross spokeswoman Devorah Goldburg said she was hopeful the dispute could be resolved and payments resumed by spring or summer of 2006.
"We think it&${esc.hash}39;s a great step forward. We&${esc.hash}39;re very positive," she said.
WILL IT WORK?While it is likely to be some time before Israel becomes a full member of the IFRC due to the lengthy procedures involved, the new emblem promises to benefit other countries outside the Red Cross Red Crescent family.
Eritrea wants to use the cross and the crescent together, and the frame of the new emblem would allow for this. Kazakhstan had wanted the same thing, but gave up waiting and opted for the crescent.
Piper said some African countries might also want to adopt a symbol incorporating the cross and the crescent.
An Iranian symbol of a lion and a sun was adopted in a previous protocol, but has not been used since 1980.
"The new emblem can unite and give more abilities to the Red Cross Red Crescent movement," said MDA&${esc.hash}39;s Yagadovsky
But some aid workers have wondered whether the new emblem will ever have the protective weight of the internationally recognised cross and crescent. At a time when aid agencies - including the ICRC - are coming under attack in hotspots such as Afghanistan and Iraq, will the crystal really be recognised as a symbol of neutrality?
"We have to explain it," Yagadovsky said. "What is this change and what does it mean?"
He said the new emblem was already part of MDA and ICRC courses about the values of the humanitarian movement.
"It&${esc.hash}39;s very important to get across the message that the movement is a neutral movement," Yagadovsky said.
See also:
- What&${esc.hash}39;s in a logo? For Red Cross, it&${esc.hash}39;s bombs, job cuts, internal strife
- ICRC on the history of the emblem debate
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