From: Paul Rotenberg <pdr@rogers.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 10:18 AM
Subject: Look what Ha'Aretz Reported
To: Paul Rotenberg <pdr@rogers.com>
This issue has been festering since before the state was established. IRC (International Red Cross) has not wanted to recognize the symbol or the organization. The fact that MDA (Magen David Adom) is trying so hard to gain their acceptance is really disappointing. They seem to have lost all self respect. The fact that they are effectively negotiating away Jewish/Israeli rights in Yehuda and Shomron is shocking. I can not believe they are being allowed to do that by the government or whoever oversees the availability of emergency services to all Israelis. The further fact that they have signed an agreement that bars them from picking up Israelis in Yehuda and Shomron, is beyond belief. They are not allowed to put ambulances there! Not mentioned here is a clause that commits MDA to upholding the humanitarian standards of the IRC and the PRCS (Palestinian Red Crescent Society). If that is not a slap in the face, if that wasn't a hint that this agreement is not one to be signed I don't know what is.
So they are committed to removing the red Magen David – one suggestion might be to replace it with a yellow Star of David, IRC never had a problem with that.
I would suggest that if you know any individual or organization that is planning to donate an ambulance to MDA, suggest that they find a better place to put the donations. Aside from what is in this article, you might tell them that MDA sells the ambulances after just a few years, well less than half their life according to the manufacturers, in order to put the funds into their general revenues. Getting donations to general revenues would be fine, but I suspect they feel that it is easier to sell an ambulance than a desk. They must be getting a lot of ambulances. However, we must recognize that by doing it this way they are purposely squandering a significant portion of the donation by using and selling ambulances in a market where they are practically the only people who buy ambulances. Aside from the issue of how much (or little) they get for their used ambulances, I wonder who they are selling them to. I understand that part of their agreement with IRC is that they will give some ambulances to the PRCS, something that they did already a few years ago. I wonder how that plays with people and organizations that scrape together a lot of money to donate an ambulance to our brothers, all our brothers in any part of Israel. Something is rotten in the state of … MDA. Very rotten.
Paul
Haaretz – 02.12.11
Magen David Adom Pledges to Leave West Bank, Haaretz Learns
By Chaim Levinson
According to the pledge, local authorities in the West Bank will run an ambulance service with different uniforms distinguishing them from their colleagues in Israel proper.
Magen David Adom says it will implement a 2005 agreement to stop funding and operating ambulances in the West Bank, according to a document on the undertaking obtained by Haaretz. According to the pledge, the local authorities in the West Bank will run the ambulance service, whose staff will wear different uniforms to distinguish them from their MDA colleagues in Israel proper.
These steps had been agreed on in 2005, when Magen David Adom joined the International Federation of the Red Cross, but had not been implemented. MDA would also remove the Star of David from its ambulances in the West Bank, replacing it with a red diamond shape.
For its part, Magen David Adom said in a statement on Thursday that it is "not familiar with the document in question. We denounce the attempt to use fragmental information, most of it distorted, and present it as facts. Magen David Adom is operating as usual with no change in the entire West Bank, with the organization's emblem as it has been until now."
In June this year, Magen David Adom agreed to implement the 2005 measures at a meeting with former IFRC general secretary Per Stenbeck and the Palestinian Red Crescent chairman in Finland. Magen David Adom signed understandings with the Palestinian Red Crescent in 2005 to stop operating ambulances in the West Bank, which falls under the PRC's jurisdiction. A senior Red Cross source said that then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon personally authorized the agreement.
Stenbeck, a former Finnish foreign minister, was appointed to supervise the implementation of the deal.
In 2009, Magen David Adom told Stenbeck it had transferred its ambulances in the West Bank to the local authorities, but could not change the emblem. On March 22 this year, the IFRC management met in Geneva and insisted that Israel carry out this clause.
At the beginning of June this year, senior Red Cross officials from the United States, France, Indonesia and Turkey came to Israel to pressure Magen David to change the emblem on the ambulances. At the meeting in Finland later that month, Magen David Adom Chairman Noam Yifrah, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent and Stenbeck agreed to change the Star of David emblems on the ambulances and the MDA's uniforms in the West Bank. Yifrah submitted examples of the new emblem and promised that foreign donations for buying Magen David Adom ambulances would not be used for buying ambulances for the settlements.
In August, MDA started calling in ambulances from the West Bank to Israel to change the emblem, angering the settlers and raising a political uproar. Stenbeck came to Israel last month and met Foreign Ministry officials, who told him they support the full implementation of the agreement.
On November 13, Magen David Adom told the IFRC it had changed the markings on 62 of 68 ambulances posted in settlements, with a picture showing the new emblem. The emblem on five mobile intensive care units and nine ambulances that MDA still operates in the West Bank will be replaced by the end of 2012, it said. Magen David Adom also said it had ordered new uniforms for its volunteers in the West Bank but had yet to receive them.
MDA reported that it had problems with foreign donators due to the decision to change the emblem and had received a letter from the state comptroller asking for a clarification on the issue. It also said a number of settlers had changed the emblem on the ambulances themselves and MDA intended to take legal steps against them.
Sincerely,
Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) a great activist and lover of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichrono Baruch.
Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com
3 comments:
Operating from 119 Emergency Medical Stations throughout Israel, from the northernmost city of Metulla to Eilat, and including 14 MDA Stations in West Bank communities, Magen David Adom ambulances continue to proudly display the “Red Star of David” or “Magen David Adom.” There has been no change in this policy. MDA ambulances have displayed the “Red Star of David” since the organization’s founding in 1930 and any rumors or allegations to the contrary are simply not true.
Recently, on “Shabbat Hevron” (“Hayei Sara,” the parasha read on November 19), Magen David Adom had a medical tent near Machpela (Tomb of the Patriarchs) in Hevron, further proving that MDA provides service on both sides of the “Green Line.”
In addition to its large national fleet of emergency vehicles, there are a number of small kibbutzim, moshavim, factories and communities on both sides of the “Green Line” that are operating older ambulances which were provided by MDA after they were taken out of active duty. Crews manning these lifesaving vehicles are trained and certified by Magen David Adom, work under the supervision of MDA’s “Community Unit” and are in regular communication with the MDA National Dispatch Center, but are not MDA staff. These ambulances also carry the “Magen David” shield, however because they are operated by individual communities/municipalities this emblem is blue and the vehicles also bear the names of their home base communities. This ensures that there is no confusion regarding the level of operational capabilities.
All the policies and procedures regarding community ambulances have been fully endorsed by the Israeli Government and in consultation with Danny Dayan, Chairman of the Judea and Samaria Council who requested that these adjustments to “community ambulances” first take place on the other side of the “Green Line” and only afterwards in Judea and Samaria. MDA agreed to this request.
This issue has been created by Arutz Sheva, whose legitimacy as a fair and balanced news service is questionable. Until this week, when JTA featured a short story, no other newspaper or news service in Israel ran it for the simple reason that it is completely misrepresented and wrong. In fact, the JTA story reports on a consequence of the negative campaign waged by Arutz Sheva.
However, as important as all of these points are, the following is, for us, the most important issue:
Every day, throughout Israel, Magen David Adom medical teams are on alert, operating nearly 900 ambulances that travel 10 million miles to care for 600,000 patients. Heart attacks, strokes, work, home and road accidents, illnesses, pregnancies and so on, in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nahariya, Metulla, Tzfat, Jerusalem, Rehovot, Sderot, Ashdod, Be’er Sheva, Eilat, Dimona, as well as Efrat, Kiryat Arba and Ofra, MDA is saving lives in Israel.
When terrorists in Gaza fire the next barrage of rockets at Sderot, Ashkelon and Be’er Sheva, when another round of missiles aimed at Israel are launched from southern Lebanon (as they were on November 28), MDA will be there to treat, stabilize and rush Israeli civilians to the hospital. Furthermore, MDA collects, tests and stores the nation’s blood, supplying 100% of the needs of the IDF and 95% of the rest used in Israel. These urgent and essential human needs, served by Magen David Adom and supported by American Friends of Magen David Adom, are crucial and compelling reasons to donate funds to AFMDA now.
Just so that US jews know, the "nice folks" charge alot of money to take you to a medical facility and if you are a week late, they send you nasty lawyer letters and harass you for money. My elderly neighbor used them for transport and they handed him a huge bill "for services". When he got home he was hounded by calls and letters. When he lived in the UK he used to donate money to them. Most of the organizations who raise money are often frauds and give huge salaries to the upper management. Then they beg money overseas. We know them here in Israel that;'s why they dont bother asking us for funds here. They look for friars (suckers) overseas,
Avi amv"sh
That is very sad. Thank you for commenting!
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