EMBLEM: MFA FRUSTRATED WITH MDA REFORM EFFORT, BUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 002025 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/IPA - AMBASSADOR JONES DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR PRM - PDAS GREENE E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/23/2016 TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV PREF IS ICRC GOI EXTERNAL ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS SUBJECT: EMBLEM: MFA FRUSTRATED WITH MDA REFORM EFFORT, BUT GOI STILL PLACING ROADBLOCKS REF: A) TEL AVIV 1619 B) TEL AVIV 1685 C) TEL AVIV 1980 D) TEL AVIV 1950 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Gene A. Cretz; Reasons 1.4 (B and D). ¶1. (C) On May 23, the Charge asked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's chief of staff, Jakub "Yaki" Dayan (protect),for an update on efforts to facilitate the accession by Magen David Adom (MDA) to the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement. Dayan replied that two issues remain to be resolved. First, he said that it would be extremely difficult for political reasons for the GOI to allow the Palestinians to station additional ambulances in East Jerusalem, as was agreed privately between MDA and the Palestinian Red Crescent. "We'll have to do without that," he remarked. (Comment: This is the first definitive "no" we have heard from the GOI on the issue of stationing additional ambulances in East Jerusalem. As of 24 May, the two PRCS ambulances that the GOI did approve have still not deployed in East Jerusalem due to "technical problems" posed by the Ministries of Health and Transport, according to Cooperation Delegate Brian Veal of the ICRC. This situation -- if not resolved before Swiss Ambassador-at-Large Pfirter's May 30-31 compliance review visit -- is likely to have negative consequences for MDA at the June conference in Geneva. End Comment.) ¶2. (C) Second, Dayan called a dispute between the MDA and the GOI on amending the MDA statutes to ensure the MDA's independence "an internal political issue." He reviewed FM Livni's efforts to achieve a compromise. She had "cracked heads" at an interagency meeting with MDA, he claimed, until everyone agreed on the establishment of a review committee to vet all MDA executive committee members. Dayan complained that MDA Chairman Noam Yifrach is now backtracking on that agreement and refusing to accept Livni's compromise proposal (ref A),maintaining that the structure of the review committee will not ensure the MDA's independence from GOI control. Dayan said that, in frustration, the MFA representative had asked MDA if it really has any interest in joining the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement. He suggested to the Charge that the USG should also intervene to caution the MDA that further delay could lead the organization to miss its "last chance" to join the Movement. ¶3. (C) Comment: Although the MFA has been a mostly helpful player within the Israeli interagency process, Dayan is unfairly casting blame at Yifrach -- who has already succeeded in getting the elected members of the MDA national council to accept the concept of a review committee to vet its candidates for executive committee positions (ref B) -- rather than elsewhere in the GOI, where the problem lies. An official in the Ministry of Justice is the current obstacle to making headway on a compromise, according to the local IFRC representative, who told us that the MOJ is still trying to impose the terms of the Israeli "public companies' law" on the MDA. At the last minute in a decades-long battle to secure MDA accession to the Red Cross Movement, apparent Israeli government reluctance to relax its control of MDA threatens to derail MDA accession to the movement. End Comment. ********************************************* ******************** Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. ********************************************* ******************** CRETZ