Cross, Crescent, and Crystal

Israel and Palestine joined the Red Cross today, after 100 years of symbolic dispute. This kind of ideological debate often stands in the way of an ideal, efficient world. The ideology is also what keeps us living in the first place.


The Telegraph reports:

For about 50 years the Israeli society had been excluded from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies because of its insistence on using a red Shield (or Star) of David.

Ethical (or bureaucratic) ideology is just as prevalent as the religious kind.

At the same time, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was excluded because the movement's statutes permitted only relief societies from sovereign states to join.

So much easier this way. Now they've finally agreed on a neutral symbol. One in which they'll insert the Cross/Crescent at the appropriate settings.

The so-called "Red Crystal" - a red square standing on its corner - will now take its place alongside the Red Cross and the Red Crescent as an internationally-recognised humanitarian emblem.

I wonder what the symbol for Hospital will become?