A Jordanian Arab with close ties to Montreal has been playing a key role behind the scenes for the past two years to see that Israel finally becomes a full member of the Red Cross organization.

When he stood for election as chair of the Standing Commission of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in December 2003, Mohammed Al-Hadid promised to find a solution acceptable to Magen David Adom (MDA) and the signatory nations of the Geneva Conventions.

The president of the Jordan Red Crescent was also a founding member of McGill University’s Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building.

In 1999, the commission, which includes representatives of both national societies and states, agreed on the creation of a third emblem, the Red Crystal. Al-Hadid was a vice-chair at the time. A diplomatic conference scheduled for its adoption in October 2000, however, was indefinitely postponed after the start of the second intifadah the month before.

“The first thing I did after I was elected was to establish a working group on the emblem. I wanted it to remain in everybody’s mind and not be forgotten,” Al-Hadid said in an interview from Amman two weeks before the conference in Geneva where a majority of countries voted to amend the 1949 conventions.

Al-Hadid’s position was clearly at odds with the Arab and Muslim countries, which have been the most resistant to Israel’s inclusion. He knew he had to convince the international community that there was a will to co-operate, nevertheless, between the Red Crescent and MDA, if he was to get the third emblem back on the agenda.

In April, he persuaded the presidents of the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) and MDA to meet in Amman for talks, along with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

“I wanted to show that these societies were concerned only with humanitarian work, and could set aside political disputes,” he said.

In June, Al-Hadid went to Washington, D.C., to tell the U.S. State Department that a diplomatic conference to approve the third emblem should be held without delay, and he also asked the Swiss government to use its offices to convene the meeting as soon as possible.

Al-Hadid then visited Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinians, and Iran to explain the commission’s position to foreign affairs officials, and he communicated with other Arab and Muslim countries. “I told them this is an opportunity not to be missed. We need a partner in Israel. We have a lot to gain from the Israelis and their experience. We need each other; it’s a two-way street.”

Al-Hadid added, “Israel has a right to its national society. We can’t exclude Israel if we really believe in the fundamental principles of the movement that there can be no discrimination among people. Any political differences should be addressed in a different forum, not through the humanitarian movement whose goal is universality.”

In September, Al-Hadid brought PRC and MDA leaders together in Seoul, South Korea, where they worked on a memorandum of understanding on operational arrangements, specifically in east Jerusalem, which was formally signed in Geneva in November.

“That was the icing on the cake, and the diplomatic conference was then set for Dec. 5 and 6,” Al-Hadid said. (The conference was extended by a day after Syria introduced a demand that its Red Crescent be allowed to operate in the Golan Heights.)

Al-Hadid, a 52-year-old doctor who has been president of the Jordan Red Crescent society for 14 years, became a trusted intermediary between Israelis and Palestinians through the McGill program. Founded in 1998, it trains Israelis, Palestinian and Jordanian social workers at McGill, who continue to cooperate after they go home through the program’s five community-service centres in their three jurisdictions. The Jordan Red Crescent is one of the program’s six partners in the region.

“It was the intervention of Mohammed, a Jordanian and a Muslim, particularly in the Arab world, that helped win the day,” said the program’s director, Prof. Jim Torczyner.

“This is grassroots diplomacy. The Jewish community needs to understand that there are people like this among the younger generation of Arab leadership, and we can work with them.”

“I am not a politician,” said Al-Hadid, who had to be persuaded by Torczyner to talk about his role. “I believe in humanitarian values, and I know MDA does, too. I am convinced they want to be part of the movement and to play be the rules.”

Al-Hadid formed relationships with Israelis through a program and became more sensitive to the MDA issue. Torczyner introduced him to the Israeli ambassador to Amman, and soon after Al-Hadid made his first visit to Israel.

On the strength of these relationships, Al-Hadid was sought as a mediator of disputes between the PRC and the Israelis on several occasions.

Soon after the start of the intifadah in 2000, the president of the PRC and about 10 of his colleagues travelling in PRC ambulances were stopped by Israeli soldiers and detained, on suspicion that the vehicles were being used to smuggle weapons.

The PRC asked Al-Hadid to intervene with Israel to get them released. He called the Israeli ambassador in Amman, as well as the president of MDA and friends in the Israeli foreign ministry. About four hours later, the PRC officials were let go.

Another time, the PRC contacted Al-Hadid when the Israelis would not allow trucks carrying medical supplies to travel to hospitals in Gaza. Once again, with a few phone calls, the trucks were waved through.

Instances like this went a long way in building up his credibility in the Arab world, he said.

The international federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies is expected to convene in March in Geneva to vote on the MDA’s full admission, and Al-Hadid said his work will not be complete until that happens.

Al-Hadid believes the conflict between Israelis and Arabs is “one of the greatest tragedies of our time” and that these “two Semitic peoples who believe in the same God” should live in harmony, as they have historically.

As he said at lecture at McGill a little more than a year ago, “the Middle East, birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, could be a real paradise if we could only take away all the aggravation, craziness, stubbornness, revenge and retaliation, and replace it with tolerance, sanity, logic, commitment to understand each other.”