U.S. Zionists Appeal to Red Cross for Admission of “magen David Adom”

Louis Lipsky, chairman of the American Zionist Council, today announced that he has submitted an appeal to the president of the League of Red Cross Societies in Geneva urging support of Israel’s Magen David Adom’s bid for membership in the International Red Cross when the matter comes up for consideration at the quadrennial International Red Cross Conference convening in Toronto on July 28.

Composed of the world’s 70 Red Cross Societies, the Conference is the highest deliberative body of the I.R.C. movement and is in a position to make such a recommendation. The Magen David Adom was barred from membership in the International Red Cross in 1949 when the Fourth Geneva Convention refused to accept the six-pointed shield of David, historic symbol of the struggle for Jewish freedom, in place of the Swiss Red Cross. The Moslem countries swung the vote against Israel at that time by a narrow margin.

Mr. Lipsky stated that barring of the Magen David Adom from membership in the International organization was a “source of extreme disquiet and concern to all fair-minded people” for which, he said, there could be no justification, especially since recognition has been granted to the Red Crescent of the Moslem countries and the Red Lion and Sun of Persia. “There surely can be no good reason why the Star of David, the immemorial symbol of the Jewish struggle for freedom, should not be accorded equal status and international recognition,” he declared.

The Magen David Adom was founded in 1930 and performed valiantly during the Second World War and during the Arab-Israel conflict. It is officially recognized by the Israel Parliament as Israel’s sole legal first-aid and ambulance agency, a status similar to that accorded to the American Red Cross by the U.S. Government.