RUTHFULLY YOURS

A day after Arutz Sheva reported that the Magen David Adom first aid organization is planning to remove its trademark red Star of David symbol from ambulances used in Israeli towns east of the 1949 armistice line, it appears as though a compromise has been reached.

In a telephone conversation on Tuesday evening, Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan and Magen David Adom President Professor Yehuda Skornik agreed that the removal of the Red Star of David in Judea and Samaria ambulances will be temporarily stopped.

According to the agreement, the Stars of David will first be taken off ambulances in other parts of the country and only then in Judea and Samaria.

The move to take down the symbols is apparently part of an agreement between Magen David Adom and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has previously taken exception to use of the Star.

Moves to recognize the armistice line as having special meaning are controversial in Israel. They are equivalent to siding with the Palestinian Authority, which insists on treating the line — also referred to incorrectly as the pre-1967 line — as a border even though it has no legal significance and would leave Israel indefensible with what Abba Eban called “Auschwitz borders”.

During his conversation with Prof. Skornik on Tuesday, Dayan expressed his disapproval of the agreement signed with the ICRC, but stressed that he is aware that this was not done during the tenure of the current chairman and chief executive of Magen David Adom.

The move was met with criticism by Judea and Samaria leaders, who made an appeal to MDA which was met with a statement saying, in part, that the move to change the symbols had been made “in coordination with the Foreign Ministry” – a clear indicator, leaders said, that the move was in fact political.