Campaign calls for global Nakba Day boycott of Airbnb over West Bank listings
Palestinians are calling on people across the world to deactivate their Airbnb accounts today in protest against the home rental company’s refusal to delist properties in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians today mark Nakba Day, when 700,000 of their compatriots fled or were forced out of their homes when Israel was founded in 1948.
The #deactivateAirbnb campaign, organised by the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy in Ramallah, is one of several ways Palestinians are putting pressure on Airbnb to delist properties in settlements, which are illegal under international law.
In November last year, the US based company announced it would remove about 200 Israeli listings located in West Bank settlements, with Airbnb describing the settlements as “the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians”.
For years, activists had called for the company to drop the properties and said Airbnb was benefiting from the illegal settlements.
But Airbnb refused to delist the settlements, reversing its decision last month after it was sued by several hosts and potential hosts in January.
They claimed the company’s decision to drop the illegal properties was discriminatory because it applied only to Jewish Israeli residents of the West Bank and not to Palestinians living in the area as well.
In one case heard in San Francisco, two of the five plaintiffs were dual Israeli and American citizens who lived in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, according to The Times of Israel.
In March, Palestinians filed a motion to challenge a lawsuit in Delaware, saying that Palestinians, and not Israelis, were the victims of discrimination because of Airbnb’s West Bank settlement listings. The case is continuing.
As Israel held parliamentary elections early last month, Airbnb announced that it would continue to offer properties in the occupied West Bank on its website.
The #deactivateAirbnb campaign has reached 1.7 million people, with 227,000 people engaging with the take action page
“We will continue to allow listings throughout all of the West Bank, but Airbnb will take no profits from this activity in the region,” the company said.
Airbnb said proceeds from renting out settler homes will instead be donated to non-profit humanitarian groups around the world. The company also said it did not support boycotts of Israel.
Airbnb is a popular accommodation provider for tourists in Israel, while there are fewer Airbnb listings in Palestine.
Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and, despite the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords declaring the West Bank to be part of a Palestinian state, Israel has extended its physical presence and control over the territory.
About 400,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements there, which range in size from tiny hamlets to large towns, with another 200,000 Israelis living in settlements located in annexed East Jerusalem.
The #deactivateAirbnb campaign has so far reached 1.7 million people and 227,000 people have clicked on or engaged with the take action page, said Salem Barahmeh, executive director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy.
“It is time to end this culture of impunity that has allowed the occupation, oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people to continue,” Mr Barahmeh said.
“International companies are complicit in perpetuating this injustice and must be held accountable.
“Through the #deactivateAirbnb campaign, people can choose whether to be complicit in supporting war crimes or ending them.”