The global property rental giant Airbnb announced Nov. 19 it was removing some 200 listings in Israeli settlements located in the West Bank. ”We concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians,” according to the company’s press release headlined “Listings in Disputed Territories.” The company went on to describe the process that led to its decision, including discussion of “whether companies should not profit on lands where people have been displaced.” It concluded by expressing hope “that someday sooner rather than late … there will be a resolution to this historic conflict.”
Airbnb had been mulling the issue for some time. PLO Executive Council head Saeb Erekat demanded in 2016 that the company remove from its listings houses in West Bank settlements, arguing that they had been built illegally on Palestinian lands in violation of international law. This week, he welcomed Airbnb’s decision as “an initial positive step.”
Israeli peace organizations were also pleased. The anti-settlement Peace Now movement said that even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett cannot see the Green Line — Israel’s internationally recognized eastern borderline — “the rest of the world distinguishes between sovereign Israel and the occupied territories.” The Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, had an interesting reaction. It simply accused the Airbnb management of “anti-Semitism or capitulation to terrorism, or both.” The settlement leaders added, “A company that has no trouble renting apartments in dictatorships around the world and in places where there is no semblance of human rights picks on the State of Israel.”
Airbnb’s decision touched the most sensitive points of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The reactions by the settlers, the peace organizations and certainly the Palestinians were therefore expected. So was the Nov. 21 statement by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked that she was considering legal steps against the company for its "discriminatory" policy.
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