Airbnb is profiting from the Israeli occupation. The multi-billion dollar vacation-rental service lists dozens of properties on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, an area that the international community views as illegally occupied under Article IV of the Geneva Conventions.
But Israelis with lavish apartments and houses east of the 1967 Green Line don't seem to care. They're renting out their homes in settlements all over the West Bank, advertising "desert views" and "Biblical landscapes." Every time a tourist rents out one of these homes, Airbnb makes a profit.
"It's not only controversial, it's illegal and criminal," Husam Zomlot, the ambassador-at-large for Palestine, told Al Jazeera. "This website is promoting stolen property and land."
So what does Airbnb have to say for themselves? The service told the Associated Press that it "follows law and regulations where it can do business.” Yet even that vague statement seems not to be true: some of the settler properties on Airbnb are on tiny West Bank outposts deemed illegal even under Israeli law.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization has sent a letter to Airbnb's editor saying the website is "effectively promoting the illegal Israeli colonization" of Palestinian land. Yet Airbnb has yet to take action. Until they do, take a look at some of the settlement properties the site's Israeli members are renting to the public.
