At least they agree on the colour

Diplomacy they say, is war by other means. So the Arab and Israelis have been slugging it out at the International Committee of the Red Cross with the Zionist state demanding recognition of the Red Star of David as an ICRC symbol since 1949. The existing symbols, it was argued, bore unwelcome religious implications – Christian in case of the Red Cross and Islamic in case of the Red Crescent. The Israeli demand was steadfastly denied, as much for ideological reasons as for unswerving Arab opposition. A little dose of US-style arm-twisting was also applied – from 2000, the US Red Cross withheld $45m in dues to the ICRC in protest against the denial of Israel’s demand. After much diplomatic haggling, a compromise was reached in December 2005, whereby it was decided that the new symbol would be a ‘neutral’ ‘Red Crystal’, and not the Star of David.

So the International Committee of the Red Cross formally adopted the ‘Red Crystal’ as its official symbol on June 22. However, to save face (or to get its own back), the ICRC, while granting recognition to the ‘Red Crystal’ and thereby admitting the Israeli Magen David Adom, also admitted the Palestine Red Crescent Society by making an exception to its statute that grants membership only to relief societies from sovereign states.

The move has set a precedent of questionable merit. It detracts from the basic idea of having a single emblem to mark vehicles and buildings protected on humanitarian grounds. Some would argue that it goes against the ICRC’s basic tenet of apolitical humanitarianism. After all, shouldn’t religion be kept out of relief services? In a situation where religio-nationalistic feelings are strong, wouldn’t it polarise, when the need is to unite? Moreover, it remains to be seen how far the ICRC will go to be politically correct. Attempts have been made in the past to have other religious symbols recognised. Persia’s Qajar Shah had mooted, and got recognition for, a ‘Red Lion and Sword’ against the ‘Russian’ cross and the ‘Ottoman’ crescent. There were demands by Sri Lanka in 1957 and India in 1977 to establish a Red Swastika. Hope the Sangh Parivar isn’t reading this.