SYMBOLISM: Next week, the American Red Cross will vote on statutes that will allow an Israeli and Palestinian aid group to join.

The linen document, written in Latin in 1291, was transported to Zurich by helicopter in an attache case that was handcuffed to museum curator Kaspar Michel. It was then flown to New York and again, by private jet, to Philadelphia. The handcuff keys were hidden on Valentin Kessler, a Schwyz preservationist, who also made the visit.

Many Swiss people objected to the original document's trip; terrorism and a dislike of President George W. Bush were factors, according to Michel. But Swiss officials prevailed, and the Bundesbrief made the visit to forge stronger alliances with the U.S. as part of the Swiss Roots project. The document is significant because Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson used it as a model in drafting the U.S. Constitution.

Swiss dignitaries, including the new Swiss Ambassador to the U.S. Urs Ziswiler; Ambassador Consul General of Switzerland in New York Raymond Loretan, Ruth Grossenbacher-Schmid of Presence Switzerland, and former Swiss President Arnold Koller, convened for a party honoring the occasion at the Union League last Friday.

Gov. Ed Rendell dropped by on his way to the 2006 Vision for Philadelphia Awards gala honoring U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in another ballroom and took Ambassador Ziswiler along to meet Specter.

In other Swiss-abilia, on June 21, 192 representatives will meet in Geneva for a politically controversial vote to change International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) statutes to allow the Israeli Magen David Adom Society (MDA) and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Red Cross-type organizations, to become members of the international aid group.

Founded in Switzerland in 1863, the nonprofit ICRC sends relief to countries in disaster. The original Red Cross symbol, the Swiss flag with the colors reversed, is recognized in the U.S. and Western Europe and most non-Muslim countries. In Muslim countries, the Red Crescent has been used since 1917 instead of the cross because they find the cross offensive.

For the past 58 years, since the establishment of Israel as a nation, the MDA has used the Star of David, but the symbol and the society were not recognized internationally. Israel will not use the Arab's Red Crescent under any circumstances, nor the Red Cross symbol, since it is Christian.

ICRC spokesperson Simon Schorno said that in the past, there was not a consensus among the voting members of the conference to include using the Star of David as a recognized symbol. Dissenters from the Arab world claim the star is a symbol for Israel rather than a symbol of relief.

Until this past December, only two relief emblems were recognized under the Geneva Convention: the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. That month the Geneva Convention was amended to allow for the use of a new, neutral Red Crystal symbol that the MDA could use when offering aid outside of Israel.

The lack of inclusion of Israel has been economically damaging for the ICRC because the U.S., as an ally of Israel, has not given funding to the organization through the American Red Cross because of its resistance to Israel. The Swiss hope that all this will change after the vote next week.