The ADL recently urged the Red Crescent to "stop the use of Palestinian ambulances in facilitating acts of violence against Israel."

However, the International Red Cross denied charges that the Palestinian Red Crescent has used resources in a non-neutral fashion.

Organizers of the Harvard dinner said they had only recently heard about the controversy regarding the two charities.

Sam L. Sternin '01, a member of HIS and SAS, said he had only heard about the Red Crescent controversy earlier in the day and had immediately passed along the concerns to the leadership.

Sternin said he had read articles describing instances where shots apparently originated from in or near Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances.

"In my opinion if such events did happen, I think it is very serious and unfortunate," Sternin said. "However, there are many reasons to believe that these were isolated incidences."

He pointed to evidence that the group's mission was not antagonistic to Israel.

"There was an event reported in the Jerusalem papers where the [Red Crescent] treated Israeli soldiers. If the mission of the organization was really to be fighting the Israeli military, that event wouldn't have happened," Sternin said.