Newspaper ad urges US to skip 'Durban II'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, law professor Alan Dershowitz and former CIA Director James Woolsey are urging the United States to skip next year's UN anti-racism conference in a full-page ad appearing Thursday in four newspapers. The ad, a copy of which was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, was signed by 25 people, including religious, academic and legal figures. They label the conference anti-Semitic, and urge Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to announce that the United States will not participate. The ad is scheduled to run in the New York Sun and The Washington Times, as well as the Washington political newspaper Politico and Roll Call, a newspaper designed for the use of members of Congress and others who work there. The conference, known as Durban II for the South African city that will host it, follows the 2001 World Conference Against Racism. At that meeting, criticism of Israel prompted the US and Israeli delegations to walk out.