In November 2018, online booking giant Airbnb announced that it would remove listings in illegal, Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, bowing to years of pressure from the StolenHomes Coalition, including SumOfUs, CODEPINK, American Muslims for Palestine, the US Palestinian Community Network, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Friends of Sabeel North America, Up Lift, and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Airbnb’s recent reversal of its earlier commitment to remove these listings is shameful. Their announcement that they will no longer profit from war crimes by donating the proceeds from settlement listings to humanitarian causes is a blatant attempt to whitewash reality: Airbnb’s continued complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights. Airbnb’s contribution in pushing Palestinians off of their land and out of their homes is in keeping with its global pattern of contributing to racial gentrification. By completely disregarding its own proclaimed commitments to help end racial discrimination, Airbnb continues to put itself on the wrong side of history.
Until freedom, historical justice, and equality are achieved, people of conscience worldwide will continue to pursue boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns that hold Israel and all institutions profiting from its oppression of the Palestinian people accountable. The lessons from campaigns to end apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow in the South make clear the importance of doing so in order to build a world where justice is indivisible and all people are equal and free.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Ramah Kudaimi
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
ramah@uscpr.org
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