Thursday, January 26, 2006

Schwab apologizes for Davos publication's anti-Israel article

World Economic Forum executive chairman Klaus Schwab ordered “Global Agenda” republished without the offending article, which he said was the result of inadequate oversight over an external publisher.
Avi Temkin, Davos
Globes [Israel]
26 Jan 06

World Economic Forum (WEF) executive chairman Prof. Klaus Schwab today had to interrupt his conference schedule to convene a press conference for Israeli correspondents, in order to apologize for an anti-Israel screed published in “Global Agenda”, the official publication of WEF 2006 annual meeting in Davos.

The article aroused a storm in Israel and among Jewish organizations in the US. Authored by Mazin Qumsiyeh, a US academic of Palestinian extraction, the article called for a boycott of Israel by civil organizations as part of the struggle against Zionism.

The resulting protests caused Schwab to issue a special press release that was distributed to all participants at Davos. Schwab apologized for the article, which he said, “totally in contradiction to my own, and the Forum’s, mission and values.”

Schwab said he only learned about the article this morning. An inquiry revealed that it was included in the WEF’s official publication because of a failure in the editorial process. Schwab said that, in addition to the official announcement in which he expressed his regret for the incident, the WEF’s organizers would remove the offending article from its website and republish the entire edition of “Global Agenda”, this time without the article.

Schwab explained that “Global Agenda” was sent to the publisher of “Euromoney”, and that WEF’s management failed to exercise proper review over the selection of articles. He added that, following this incident, which he called the worst since the WEF began holding conferences, the WEF would review the way “Global Agenda” was published.

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