[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 99 (Tuesday, July 25, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CONGRATULATING ISRAEL'S MAGEN DAVID ADOM SOCIETY

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 18, 2006

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in congratulating Magen 
David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical service, as a fully 
admitted and recognized member of the International Red Cross and Red 
Crescent Movement. This 60-year effort to win membership for Israel's 
humanitarian society solely on the basis the MDA uses the Star of David 
as its symbol.
  Since its founding in 1930, MDA has been a leading participant in 
international humanitarian relief efforts and in training and 
instruction in emergency services techniques. Regrettably, the 
organization has been denied full membership in the International 
Committee for the Red Cross, ICRC, because of anti-Israel bias among 
countries that refuse to recognize the State of Israel or the symbol of 
the Star of David. This political discrimination is in direct violation 
of the ICRC principle of maintaining neutrality and impartiality in 
conflicts.
  MDA has been a committed humanitarian society embodying all the goals 
and ideals of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. MDA has been an 
impartial force in the international community helping victims all over 
the world after the Southeast Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, 
disastrous flooding of the River Danube in Romania, even helping those 
considered enemies of Israel. But for 60 years, Israel was denied 
membership. There was no good reason for MDA to be forced to wait this 
long to be a member of ICRC when their efforts are solely humanitarian 
and separate from the decades-old political conflict existing in the 
Middle East.
  The process of International recognition has been a long and arduous 
process tainted by discrimination allowing politics to outweigh the 
humanitarian objectives of the MDA. A diplomatic conference in Geneva 
in December 2005 was a significant step in the process of enabling MDA 
to finally become a full member in the International Committee of the 
Red Cross. On December 8, 2005 the signatory countries to the Geneva 
Conventions approved a Third Additional Protocol establishing a new 
neutral Red Crystal emblem by a vote of 98 in favor, 27 against, with 
10 abstentions. After all these years, the Syrian delegation still 
tried to stall the vote, but in the end was unable to prevent the 
adoption of the Third Protocol.
  I am pleased that this longstanding injustice has been rectified and 
MDA is permitted to conduct international humanitarian operations under 
a third neutral symbol. We should not allow decades old disputes and 
larger, unrelated political problems in the Middle East to impede the 
work of Israel's humanitarian aid society.
  I also take this time to applaud the efforts of U.S. diplomats and 
American organizations for bringing the issue of MDA's exclusion from 
the ICRC to the focus of the international community. Without U.S. 
leadership on this important issue and the pressure that both our 
leaders and the American Red Cross put on the ICRC, this wrong that has 
existed since Israel's founding would not have been redressed. Our 
country understood that we should not allow politics to prevail over 
humanitarian efforts in any country no matter what the political 
climate or religious beliefs are. I also thank the American Red Cross 
for its continued support to help open the channels for MDA's 
acceptance in the ICRC. I fully support the decision of the American 
Red Cross, since 2000, to protest the exclusion of MDA by withholding 
$42 million in annual dues from ICRC. Finally, I would like to thank 
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, for its efforts 
lobbying Congress and working with the U.N. and the American Red Cross 
in support of MDA.
  MDA should never have been linked to the fate of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict and with the adoption of a third neutral symbol 
will be able to fulfill its humanitarian mission. The adoption of a 
neutral symbol is a celebration that humanitarian principles have 
triumphed above politics and bigotry.

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