New York, NY, June 4, 2007 … In the aftermath of actions by two trade unions in the United Kingdom urging their members to consider actions boycotting the State of Israel, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is running advertisements in leading national and international newspapers and news Web sites calling the resolutions "biased, unfair and destructive attacks on Israel."

ADL ads appearing June 4 in The New York Times and June 6 in the International Herald Tribune and Financial Times criticize recent votes by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the University and College Union (UCU) for singling out Israel while ignoring nations with deplorable human rights records, including Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

The campaign, which also includes Web ads on NYTimes.com and CNN.com, may be viewed at www.adl.org/boycott.

"When British Unions single out Israel for boycott … That's not activism.  That's Anti-Semitism," reads one of a series of ADL ads in today's New York Times.  The ads refer readers to the League's Web site, where they may find additional resources and information on anti-Israel divestment campaigns and can sign an open letter to the NUJ and UCU calling on the unions to reverse course.

"British organizations like the National Union of Journalists should be embarrassed," reads the ADL ad.  "They've singled out Israel for boycott while ignoring the human rights abuses occurring every day in countries like Sudan, Zimbabwe, Iran and Venezuela."
ADL's ads offer facts about other human rights violations around the world, about which the British academics' and journalists' unions have remained silent, while reminding readers of the anti-Israel boycott votes in the U.K.:

• 38 reporters arrested last year in Iran. And British journalists are boycotting Israel?

• 700 human rights activists detained and tortured last year in Zimbabwe.  And British Academics are boycotting Israel?

• 400,000 murdered in Darfur.  And British academics are boycotting Israel?

• Most watched independent TV station shut down in Venezuela.  And British journalists are boycotting Israel?

ADL has condemned the May 30 passage by the UCU of two resolutions targeting Israeli academics and urged the union's leaders to reject implementation of the proposed measures.  The resolutions sharply criticized Israel and condemned what they called "the complicity of Israeli academia in the occupation."

On April 13, the NUJ approved a resolution condemning the state of Israel for "the savage pre-planned attack on Lebanon" and "the slaughter of civilians in Gaza" and called for sanctions, including a proposed boycott of Israeli goods.

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.