Home-sharing giant Airbnb announced in a blog that it will boycott West Bank settlements and remove settler listings from its website. Many Jews are calling the move anti-Semitic, while the Palestinians are praising the decision.
Airbnb announced its policy change on its website, saying the move will affect 200 listings.
“There are conflicting views regarding whether companies should be doing business in the occupied territories, which are the subject of historical disputes between Israelis and Palestinians,” Airbnb said.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 31: McKeever Conwell II
Jamarlin talks to investor and serial entrepreneur McKeever Conwell II about being inspired by a teacher to become an engineer, getting recruited out of college by a U.S. intelligence agency, and making pre-seed investments for Maryland’s tech development state fund, TEDCO.
______________________________________________________________________________
Here’s more from the Airbnb decision:
Many in the global community have stated that companies should not do business here because they believe companies should not profit on lands where people have been displaced. Others believe that companies should not withdraw business operations from these areas.
We spent considerable time speaking to various experts, including those who have criticized our previous approach, about this matter. As a global platform operating in 191 countries and regions and more than 81,000 cities, we must consider the impact we have and act responsibly.
The decision to do this has been in the works for some two years, said Arvind Ganesan, business and human rights director at the international NGO Human Rights Watch.
“For two years, Human Rights Watch has spoken with Airbnb about their brokering of rentals in West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international humanitarian law and for which Palestinian ID holders are effectively barred from entering,” Ganesan told The Jerusalem Post. “We urge other companies to follow suit.”
Almost immediately after the decision was announced, Israeli right-wing lawmakers spoke out and encouraged settler homeowners to take legal action against Airbnb. They also threatened to limit the Airbnb’s operations in Israel.
Israeli officials are rallying against Airbnb. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely is looking into a legal plan to block the move, while Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan vowed to reach out to senior U.S. officials to explore where the decision violated American laws against Israeli boycotts that are currently in place in 25 out of 50 states.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren pointed out, “Airbnb blacklists Jewish apartments in Judea and Samaria – not Palestinian apartments, not apartments in Turkish occupied Cyprus, not in Moroccan occupied Sahara, not in Tibet or the Crimea. Airbnb’s policy is the very definition of anti-Semitism. No one should use its services.”
On the other hand, PLO Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat praised Airbnb and encouraged the company to go even further.
“We reiterate our call upon the U.N. Human Rights Council to release the database of companies profiting from the Israeli colonial occupation. Israeli settlements are not just an obstacle to peace but defy the very definition of peace,” Erekat said.
Airbnb’s move is an act of corporate anti-Semitism, wrote syndicated columnist David Harsanyi in the New York Post. Harsanyi critiqued the Airbnb blog, saying “it sounds like it was written by some poli-sci freshman who just wrapped up his first Chomsky tome”:
“Airbnb is only targeting Jews,” Harsanyi wrote. “The ‘global community’ is a euphemism for a conglomerate of theocrats and authoritarians who use the Middle East’s sole democratic state (Israel) as a distraction to deflect from their own transgressions. It also includes various Western Israel obsessives with misleading names like Human Rights Watch.’
Airbnb is helping normalize the anti-Jewish boycott, divest and sanction movement, Harsanyi said.
Jews were forced out of the West Bank when seven Arab armies attacked in 1948. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were displaced from Muslim countries in the years following Israel’s creation. Many of those nations continue to oppress and displace indigenous Christians, and Airbnb continues to do business with them. Jews retook the West Bank in 1967 after a number of Arab armies attacked. Since then, Israel has offered autonomy and nationhood many times to the people living in that land in exchange for peace. The only reason Jews live in self-contained communities in the West Bank is because Palestinian authorities do nothing to stop the violence aimed at civilians, according to Harsanyi.
Airbnb property listings will remain online in East Jerusalem and in the contested Old City of Jerusalem.
Wow. Respect to all the organizers who campaigned against Airbnb operating in illegal Israeli settlements for years:
Airbnb says it's removing listings in illegal West Bank settlementshttps://t.co/tz3T3LLLWw
— Remi Kanazi (@Remroum) November 19, 2018
