Florida leaders blast Airbnb over rental ban
Company withdrew services from Israeli settlers in West Bank; state boycott possible
TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers are lambasting Airbnb’s decision to withdraw its services from Israeli settlers in the West Bank, with one GOP representative saying the shortterm rental company “may end up getting shut down” in the state over the move.
“Their choice may have been to exit the Florida market,” said state Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, who is Jewish. “Florida has a pretty clear policy: if you boycott Israel, we boycott you.”
Fine’s remarks come on the heels of Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis’ statements Monday saying he was researching whether Airbnb’s West Bank ban puts it in violation of a state law prohibiting the state from doing business with companies engaged in boycotts against Israel.
“They delisted all Jewish listings in the West Bank,” DeSantis told reporters during an event at a Jewish school in Fort Lauderdale. “They do not treat anybody else in the entire world like this. It’s only targeted to the Jewish community.”
Airbnb allows homeowners to list their properties as short-term rentals to strangers, with thousands of listings in Florida. The company paid $45.7 million in sales taxes to the state last year and has agreements with at least 40 counties to pay sales and bed taxes, including one inked with Orange in 2016 and one with Seminole made final last month.
Airbnb announced its deci-
sion Nov. 19 to withdraw about 200 listings for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a territory Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War it won against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Critics of Israel contend settlers are illegally encroaching on Palestinian lands; supporters believe Israel has a right to the disputed areas.
Palestinian activists have pushed a program of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, regarding Israel in an attempt to put international pressure on the country to end the settlements.
The San Franciscobased company said it was evaluating its listings in disputed territories throughout the world, not just in Israel, and noted its decision doesn’t apply to other disputed areas like East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. It said it has restricted reservations in other regions.
Fine called the move “anti-Semitic,” but Airbnb disputes that, saying its policy is based on the status of the region, not on the status of the individuals offering rooms for rent, and noted it has 20,000 listings in Israel.
“Major U.S.-based multi-national hotels do not offer accommodations in these settlements and under our policy, listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank will no longer be active,” said Chris Lehane, Airbnb global head of policy and communications. “This policy is not based on any characteristic of the host and applies to all listings in these areas. For example, under our policy, a host with listings in the areas covered by our announcement could continue to share different listings in other parts of the region.”
That decision, though, didn’t go far enough for BDS supporters. The Palestinian BDS National Committee called it a “first step in the right direction to end Airbnb’s profiting from Israel’s theft of indigenous Palestinians’ lands and natural resources” but said by not including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights it was “contradicting its own statement.”
The move is having repercussions on Airbnb’s business in other parts of the U.S. beyond Florida.
Gilad Erdan, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, sent a letter to five governors of U.S. states, including to Gov. Rick Scott and DeSantis, urging them to impose sanctions and speak out against Airbnb.
Florida already has a law targeting companies participating in BDS practices. Known as the antiBDS law, it allows the State Board of Administration to place a company in violation of the law on the scrutinized companies list, prohibiting it from doing business with the state or receiving money from the state.
When the law was first passed in 2016 it only applied to companies with contracts of $1 million or more, but was amended this year to apply to any amount of money. Fine was the sponsor of the 2018 bill. Both were signed into law by Scott.
How the law would apply to Airbnb, however, is unclear.
In addition to the agreements with counties, Airbnb is promoted by Visit Florida, the state’s tourism promotion group, on its website, but there isn’t a formal contract between the entities. Airbnb also offers free accommodations to hurricane evacuees, a fact highlighted by Scott in responding to storms the past two years.
A spokesman for Scott said he is reviewing the law to see “what additional steps” he’ll take.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, a prominent voice on Israel in the Legislature, warned Airbnb that incoming Gov. DeSantis would approach the issue aggressively.
“We may have passed this law under Gov. Scott, but Gov.-elect DeSantis is going to enforce this law in ways that it was not enforced in the past,” Moskowitz said.
DeSantis highlighted one area where he would crack down on the company: travel by state employees.
“I know that state workers are allowed to use Airbnb for official travel — that is not going to be acceptable to me as governor,” DeSantis said. “Airbnb should reevaluate and reverse this policy. If they don’t do that, then it’s going to be rough sledding here in the state of Florida.”
Fine said he hasn’t met with Airbnb representatives or lobbyists and isn’t likely to do so.
“I don’t generally meet with anti-Semites,” Fine said.
Airbnb has pushed a bill the last three years to eliminate new local government regulations on short-term rentals, but it has failed to get through the Legislature. The West Bank decision seems to have squashed its hopes for next year already.
“I’d be surprised if they could get a bill heard in the Legislature,” Moskowitz said.