June 19, 2003 -  WASHINGTON -- The American Jewish Committee sharply criticized the Crowne Plaza Hotel, National Airport, and its parent company, The InterContinental Hotels Group, for agreeing to host this weekend's conference of the Barnes Review, a neo- Nazi group.

"Meetings of racist groups like the Barnes Review belong in dark corners and back alleys, not major hotel facilities," said David Bernstein, Washington Area Director of the American Jewish Committee.

"We urge Washington area hotels to develop policies about which kind of organizations they will and will not invite into their facilities in the future," he said.

For two consecutive years, Washington area hotels, the Holiday Inn on New Jersey Avenue and the Crowne Plaza Hotel, National Airport, have agreed to host the annual conference of this organization.

The Barnes Review is a well known white supremacist group that promotes Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic and racist doctrines. The group’s conferences have been a virtual who’s who of American and international racists. The Barnes Review most recently promoted and distributed long-time white supremacist David Duke's newest anti-Semitic book.

"Hotels are under no obligation to host such groups," Bernstein pointed out. "They have the right to refuse to hold conferences and meetings of groups that promote hatred and genocide," Bernstein said. "Do these well respected Hotel chains really want their guests to be dining along side of neo-Nazis attending hate conferences?"

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Contact: Kenneth Bandler (212) 891-6771 PR@ajc.org

        Lisa Fingeret Roth (212) 891-1385 rothl@ajc.org