31 March 2002
The President of Magen David Adom condemns the adverse use of the Red
Crescent Emblem
(Communicated by the MDA Spokesperson)
Magen David Adom is concerned by the volume of violence and the
escalation of terror, which are the cause of a steep increase in the
number of dead and wounded amongst the civilian population.
Magen David Adom has acted, is acting and will continue to act as a
humanitarian organization, providing its services to the entire
population with no discrimination as well as to those needing it
amongst the Palestinian population.
Throughout the entire period of confrontation there has been no
change in the policy of Magen David Adom to support the Palestinian
Red Crescent, to its greatest ability, in order to assist it in
fulfilling its humanitarian duties.
Magen David Adom has asked the representatives of the Red Crescent in
the past both orally and in writing, that the immunity provided the
rescue vehicles would not be put to adverse use or exploited for
terrorist activities.
Recently, three incidents have been documented in which staff or
ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent actively participated in
terrorist activity or misused the protective emblems.
Following are the details:
- Wafaa Idris, a Palestinian Red Crescent employee, was sent on a
terrorist mission and committed a suicide bombing in Jaffa Road in
Jerusalem, in January this year.
- Adverse use of the identification vests of the Palestinian Red
Crescent by distributing them to rioters, after the erection of a
road block and the burning of tires against the IDF, in one of the
Palestinian roadblocks in Samaria.
- On March 27, 2002 IDF soldiers detained an ambulance driver
working for the Palestinian Red Crescent close to the Rama Bridge
south of Ramallah, who was smuggling an explosives belt and other
explosive charges in his ambulance. The belt and charges were hidden
under a stretcher on which a Palestinian sick child lay. The employee
admitted that he was smuggling the charges in order to transfer them
to Tanzim activists in the Ramallah region.
In addition to these, other undocumented incidents have been reported
by senior commanders of the IDF, of adverse use of ambulances, such
as assisting in the escape of terrorists from the scene of the
incident and transporting terrorists into the territory of Israel.
Magen David Adom demands that the Palestinian Red Crescent observe
its neutrality immediately and refrain from a cynical and harmful use
of ambulances and preventive emblems, in terrorist activities.
Adverse use of the preventive emblems undermines the trust in them
and causes contempt. As a result, the humanitarian activities carried
out by both sides, are harmed.
In the publications of the Palestinian Red Crescent it is alleged
that the charge was hidden in the ambulance as an act of provocation.
We find it appropriate to protest in the strongest terms against such
a miserable claim, which to the best of our knowledge, was also
documented in the presence of ICRC representatives and has no hold in
reality. It seems this slanderous claim is supposed to cover up the
lack of control and supervision of the Palestinian Red Crescent, over
its staff and volunteers.
We demand that the Palestinian Red Crescent supervise its staff and
volunteers more strictly in order to avoid the recurrence of the
misuse of protective emblems.
Magen David Adom calls upon the International Red Cross to intervene
immediately in order to ensure that its protege, the Palestinian Red
Crescent, strictly observe and respect the protective emblems, for
humanitarian purposes only.