section_path: History of the emblems/Unrecognized emblems; Red Star of David and Red Swastika
section_name: Unrecognized emblems; Red Star of David and Red Swastika
paragraph_text: Unrecognized emblems; Red Star of David and Red Swastika
  
  For over 50 years, the State of Israel requested the addition of a red Star of David, arguing that since Christian and Muslim emblems were recognized, the corresponding Jewish emblem should be as well, despite the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols being used outside of a religious context. This emblem has been used by Magen David Adom (MDA), or Red Star of David, but it is not recognized by the Geneva Conventions as a protected symbol. The Red Star of David is not recognized as a protected symbol outside Israel; instead the MDA uses the Red Crystal emblem during international operations in order to ensure protection. Depending on the circumstances, it may place the Red Star of David inside the Red Crystal, or use the Red Crystal alone.
  
  In her March 2000 letter to the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times, Bernadine Healy, then president of the American Red Cross, wrote: "The international committee's feared proliferation of symbols is a pitiful fig leaf, used for decades as the reason for excluding the Magen David Adom—the Shield (or Star) of David." In protest, the American Red Cross withheld millions in administrative funding to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies since May 2000.
  
  In 1922, a Red Swastika Society was formed in China during the Warlord era. The swastika is used in the Indian subcontinent, East, and Southeast Asia as a symbol to represent Dharma or Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in general. While the organization has organized philanthropic relief projects (both domestic and international), as a sectarian religious body it is ineligible for recognition from the International Committee.