French rights group files complaint against Airbnb, Booking.com for settlement listings

PARIS, France — A French human rights group on Thursday filed a legal complaint against Airbnb and Booking.com, accusing them of promoting “occupation tourism” by listing accommodation in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

In the case submitted in Paris, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH) alleges that the platforms are complicit in the aggravated concealment of war crimes.

“These multinational companies, by offering their services and provisions, enable and facilitate, both directly and indirectly, the creation… and the expansion of Israeli settlements,” said the group’s lawyer, Patrick Baudouin.

Online travel companies like Airbnb and Booking.com have long faced pressure from Palestinian officials, anti-Israel activists and human rights groups to end their listings there.

Most of the international community, though not the United States, considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel rejects this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area. It says the settlements provide strategic depth and security and that the West Bank is “disputed,” not “occupied.” More than 500,000 settlers live in the territory alongside some three million Palestinians.

According to the LDH, the practices of both platforms constitute “assistance… to the concerted Israeli plan of colonization and destruction of the Palestinian population.”

Airbnb does not specify that the properties offered for rent aren’t located within Israel’s internationally recognized borders. Instead, it only names the settlement, without indicating that it is one.

Booking.com mentions that the accommodation is in Israeli settlements and is “in Palestine.”

Places of interest for tourists and how far they are away from the rental properties are mentioned, which helps “to sustain occupation tourism,” said Baudouin.

The UN said on September 26 that it had identified 158 firms from 11 countries linked to activities in Israeli settlements, including Airbnb and Booking.com.

On June 30, the staunchly anti-Israel UN special rapporteur on the Palestinians, Francesca Albanese, condemned major travel platforms that promote tourism that “legitimize annexation.”

There was no immediate response from Airbnb and Booking.com when contacted by AFP.

In February this year, British newspaper The Guardian reported having identified 402 listings for apartments, hotels and houses in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as in East Jerusalem, which has been annexed.

Some 350 were on Airbnb and 52 on Booking.com, totaling 760 rooms able to accommodate more than 2,000 people.

Airbnb announced in November 2018 the removal of rental listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. But the listings were reinstated in April the following year, after lawsuits in Israel and the United States, where Jewish Americans accused it of religious discrimination.

The company then promised that all profits generated would go to humanitarian aid worldwide.

Other legal complaints against Booking.com have been issued in the Netherlands, and against Airbnb in Ireland, the UK and the United States.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.