January 26, 2006 – New York – The American Jewish Committee welcomed today’s statement of regret by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, who apologized for the publication of an article advocating an international boycott of Israel.

The article appeared in Global Agenda, the WEF’s official magazine, distributed to the more than 2,500 prominent leaders from around the world meeting this week in Davos, Switzerland. Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s international director of interreligious affairs, is among the conference attendees.

AJC sent a strong letter of protest yesterday to Schwab after learning about the article by Mazin Qumsiyeh, who has long opposed Israel’s existence. “We hope that you agree that the inclusion of this article was not only a mistake, but an unfortunate endorsement of bigotry that must be remedied immediately,” wrote AJC Executive Director David A. Harris, who urged the WEF leadership to denounce the article and to institute policies to insure that such hatred never again appears in a Forum publication.

“We appreciate Mr. Schwab’s quick action in investigating how that article got into print, in expressing his regret publicly, and in assuring that appropriate steps have been instituted to ensure that this will never happen again,” said Harris.

In his statement today, Schwab said: “There was an unacceptable failure in the editorial process, specifically an insufficiently short period for review of content- for which there is no excuse. I, on behalf of the Forum, profoundly apologize and express my regrets to everyone.”