Activists Protest Airbnb’s Listings in Israeli Settlements

posted on: Feb 17, 2016

Activists in San Francisco protest outside Airbnb headquarters. (STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI)

Two days after Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s head of global policy, promoted the alleged financial benefits of the online booking website to attendees of the United States Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC, CODEPINK and Jewish Voice for Peace activists protested outside Airbnb’s San Francisco headquarters on  Jan. 22 to demand the company stop offering vacation rentals in illegal Israeli settlements. Properties in the Jewish-only settlements of Efrat, Ma’ale Rehavam, Tekoa and Ma’ale Adumim, illegally built on Palestinian land beyond the Green Line, are erroneously listed by Airbnb as being in Israel.

Chanting, “Airbnb, you can’t hide, you are profiting from apartheid,” many carried signs reading “No Airbnb on Stolen Land” and “Stop Listing Homes in Illegal Israeli Settlements #Stolen Homes.”

In continued defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 446, which states: “The policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to rapidly expand the illegal settlements. In the first days of this new year, the Israeli government confiscated 380 acres of Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley, and demolished six structures built for Bedouins by European Union funds, in order to build new settlements for Israeli Jews and essentially cutting off Palestinian residents from occupied East Jerusalem. This illegal land seizure by the Israeli government is the largest since August 2014.

By listing for lease properties in illegal settlements, Airbnb is violating its own stated policy that it prohibits listings that promote racism, discrimination or harm to individuals or groups.

—Elaine Pasquini

Source: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs