NO MORE SECOND CLASS STATUS FOR ISRAEL AT THE RED CROSS –   SIGN THE PETITION!

For over five decades, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - viewed by the world as the epitome of humanity, impartiality and neutrality - has steadfastly refused to accept Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) as a full and equal voting member. The MDA has long exemplified Israel’s unwavering commitment to international humanitarian relief efforts. And, the MDA is  excluded even though they meet all the necessary criteria for membership.

Here’s why. In 1949, four years after the Holocaust, the Geneva Conventions established that only nations bearing the Red Cross or Red Crescent could be granted equal standing in the international humanitarian movement. Israel's Star of David was excluded. Those rules - the very basis for international humanitarian law - effectively barred Israel from taking her rightful place among all the nations!

Here at the Center we are committed to working on every front to overturn this injustice.

And, we are asking you to take two important actions:

First, please follow this link to sign the urgent-action petition to the President of Switzerland , Samuel Schmid, demanding that Switzerland exercise its power to immediately convene a diplomatic conference of world governments to amend the flawed 1949 Geneva Conventions. Demand that, at long last, Israel and its Star of David emblem are granted equal status among nations in the International Red Cross.

And second, please make an urgently needed donation to the Center.  Your generous contribution – and your signature on the petitions - will directly help us to press world leaders, Red Cross   societies, and governments to overturn the IRC’s discriminatory policy towards Israel and the Jewish people.

I am proud to report that the American Red Cross (ARC) has emerged as Israel’s biggest ally in this struggle. To date, the ARC has withheld $26 million in dues from the Geneva-based headquarters in a lone but courageous protest over Israel’s exclusion. Recently, American Red Cross President Marsha Evans spoke at the Center's Museum of Tolerance to 30 Jewish leaders for the first time ever, emphasizing the need for "transparency and universality" within the IRC. She reiterated her organization's steadfast commitment to withholding its dues from the international body until it ends its unjust exclusion of Israel.

We have also spoken face-to-face with Jakob Kellenberger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, and with top leaders of the Canadian Red Cross in Ottawa, urging their support as well.

We know that, with your help, we can make a dramatic impact in the fight to correct this outrageous and shameful history of discrimination within the international humanitarian movement - and at the same time strengthen Israel’s struggle to gain full and equal status in the family of nations.  Please, act today.