MAGEN DAVID ADOM AND PALESTINE RED CRESCENT SOCIETY SIGN AGREEMENT
Magen David Adom in Israel (MDA) and the Palestine Red Crescent Society have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva which top officials said should help end a decades-old dispute and ease Israel's entry into the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.. Signing the agreement was Noam Yifrach, Magen David Adom Chairman and Younis Al-Khatib, President of the Palestine Red Crescent Society. It was witnessed by Philippe Cuvillier, member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Standing Commission, President of the ICRC Jakob Kellenberger and Bengt Westerberg, ICRC Vice President. The signing was held under the auspices of Swiss Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey, head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
The agreement between Magen David Adom and the Palestinian Red Crescent amounts to formal mutual recognition by the two groups. Monday's signing ceremony in Geneva comes a week before a conference of the 192 signatories of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, on December 5-6, 2005, that is widely expected to formally recognize a "Red Crystal" alongside the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols already in use. This “Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions” is expected to pave the way for Magen David Adom in Israel’s inclusion in the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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