Airbnb removes listings from colonies in occupied West Bank
Decision taken because colonies are at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, company says
Home-renting company Airbnb said on Monday it would remove listings in Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank, a move Israel called a “wretched capitulation” to boycotters and Palestinians hailed as a step towards peace.
The decision, affecting some 200 listings, would take effect in the coming days, Airbnb said.
Israel captured and occupied the West Bank in a 1967 war. Its colonies there are considered illegal by the international community.
Palestinians deem the colonies, and the military presence needed to protect them, to be obstacles to their goal of establishing a state.
“We concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians,” Airbnb said on its website.
“Our hope is that someday sooner rather than later, a framework is put in place where the entire global community ■ is aligned so there will be a resolution to this historic conflict and a clear path forward for everybody to follow.” Palestinians and their supporters had long lobbied Airbnb to delist the colonies.
Israel strongly opposes such calls for boycotts, which it believes threatened the livelihood of its illegal state.
Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin called Airbnb’s move “the most wretched of wretched capitulations to the boycott efforts”.
Speaking on Israel’s Channel 13 television, he said Israel was not told of the decision in advance and that it would respond by backing lawsuits by colony listers against Airbnb in US courts.
Waleed Assraf, head of a Palestinian anti-colony group run by the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation, welcomed Airbnb’s decision. Should other companies follow suit, he told Reuters, “this will contribute to achieving peace”.
Human Rights Watch said the Airbnb move came on the eve of its publication of a 65page report it has carried out into tourist rental listings in colonies, including by Airbnb.