New York, NY, January 26, 2006 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed the apology from the head of the World Economic Forum for an outrageous anti-Israel article appearing in the official magazine of the annual Davos meeting.

In his statement of apology, Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum said, "With great concern and pain … I learned about this article. … I concluded there was an unacceptable failure in the editorial process, specifically an insufficiently short period for review of content – for which there is no excuse."

In a phone conversation from Davos with Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, Mr. Schwab personally reiterated his apology and indicated that the viewpoints in the article were contrary to the Forum's mission and values.  A day earlier, ADL had written to Mr. Schwab, calling on the Forum to denounce the article and not give legitimacy to such extremist approaches.

"We are heartened that the leader of Davos has stated unequivocally that the Forum does not support inflammatory calls to boycott the sovereign state of Israel," Mr. Foxman said. "While it is disturbing that this article found its way into the official magazine of Davos, we welcome Mr. Schwab's immediate actions to apologize, to make clear that the ideas expressed in the article are anathema to the Forum's core values, and to have the article removed from the Forum's Web site."

The article, "Boycott Israel" by Mazin Qumiyeh, an extremist anti-Israel activist, contained outright false statements about Israel, Zionism and Israeli policy.  The article was permeated with anti-Semitic insinuations of Jewish craftiness, control of the media and American and international policymaking. 

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.