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The villa presents an impressive sight: a private pool, a beautifully landscaped terrace complete with a firepit, an expansive dining area offering breathtaking views from the balcony, a ping pong table, and even a piano.
However, the highlight, as touted by its Airbnb listing, is the serene experience of witnessing sunrises over the majestic Judean mountains from the spacious master bedroom.
This villa, which offers sweeping views of the Judean mountains, is situated in a settlement on land seized from Palestinians, a status deemed illegal under international humanitarian standards.
Entry for Palestinians into this settlement and others in the West Bank is restricted; typically, they may only gain access as laborers through special permits.
An exclusive investigation by the Guardian found that there are currently 760 accommodations—including hotels, apartments, and other rental properties—advertised within these illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on leading tourism platforms.
Collectively, these listings can accommodate over 2,000 guests as of August 2024, with the villa being just one example among them.
Describing the community of Tekoa, the listing states it is a “quiet, respectful and diverse residential community,” omitting any reference to the recent violent incidents nearby that have involved weapons and have resulted in the displacement of Palestinian residents from their land. Within a four-mile radius of Tekoa, over 100 Palestinians have been displaced since 2023, with incidents of violence and land expropriation sharply rising since the onset of the Gaza conflict.
Despite the escalating violence, Tekoa – renowned for its natural landscapes, organic farms, and proximity to the Israeli-administered Nahal Tekoa Nature Reserve and Herodion National Park – emerged as the settlement in the West Bank with the highest number of vacation rental listings on Airbnb outside of East Jerusalem.
The Guardian’s analysis identified nearly 350 listings in total—321 of which were houses, apartments, or rooms on Airbnb, along with 26 hotels found on Booking.com—throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem as of August 30, 2024.
Duplicates were eliminated to provide clear counts, ensuring that holiday rentals linked to Airbnb and hotel listings on Booking.com were only counted once. The overall tally, based on listings rather than individual properties, reached 402 across the West Bank and East Jerusalem—comprising 350 on Airbnb and 52 on Booking.com.
Among the Airbnb listings examined, 18 were located in outposts, which are considered illegal under international law and lack official authorization from the Israeli government.
‘War crimes are not a tourist attraction’
Human rights advocates contend that by operating in these settlements, multinational firms like Booking.com and Airbnb are breaching international law. In fact, both companies are part of sixteen non-Israeli entities identified by the UN as having connections to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, stated in reaction to these findings: “Any business involved in Israel’s illegal settlements contributes to a war crime and bolsters the system of apartheid.”
Benedict further highlighted the rising civilian casualties in the West Bank, asserting that tourist businesses are complicit in a cycle of violence and repression. “War crimes should not be a part of the tourism experience; both Airbnb and Booking.com must dissolve their involvement with the annexation and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands,” he urged.
Sari Bashi, the programme director at Human Rights Watch, pointed out that enabling listings for properties in these settlements supports land expropriation and further exacerbates restrictions on movement, which can lead to forced displacement of Palestinians – all part of broader human rights violations established as apartheid.
“Businesses must not facilitate or profit from grave violations of international norms. It is imperative for Airbnb and Booking.com to halt operations in occupied territories,” she asserted.
The involvement of these companies in the listings has attracted attention from legal authorities. Dutch law enforcement is investigating a criminal complaint filed against Booking.com regarding its promotion of rental properties in illegal settlements, though no conclusions have yet been reached.
The complaint was submitted by the Dutch non-profit organization, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (Somo), in November 2023, which argues that Booking.com “profits from war crimes by facilitating the rental of vacation homes on stolen land.”
Recently, additional evidence was presented to Dutch authorities, indicating that Booking.com has “significantly expanded” its occupancy listings in the occupied regions since the original complaint.
Lydia de Leeuw of Somo, spearheading the complaint, remarked to the Guardian: “The continued presence of [Booking.com] in the occupied territories reflects their clear intentions to persist with their operations unabated.”
In a significant advisory opinion announced in July 2024, the UN’s International Court of Justice called for Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian lands, underscoring that its actions contravened international law, and urged countries to refrain from recognizing the situation as legitimate or assisting in its maintenance.
West Bank tourism in the holiday rental era
The assertion by settlers that the appropriated territories are now part of Israel is observable in various Airbnb listings. Nearly two-fifths of properties in these settlements erroneously label their location as Israel rather than occupied Palestinian territory, with only a small fraction of listings acknowledging their placement on Palestinian land. The majority prominently featured the settlement’s name in their titles and descriptions.
As of August 30, only five of the 26 hotels listed in Israeli settlements on Booking.com mentioned their location on Palestinian land in any form.
Airbnb had initially pledged in November 2018 to eliminate approximately 200 listings from the occupied West Bank, but this decision was later reversed due to pressures from Israeli legal representatives who filed a class-action lawsuit. The company claimed to allocate profits from these listings to charitable organizations.
A 2019 Amnesty International report highlighted the Israeli government’s amplifying support towards the tourism sector associated with settlements, citing the construction of many settlements near archaeological sites to emphasize connections to Jewish history.
The designation of certain areas as tourist sites by the Israeli government is often used as justification for expropriating Palestinian land and properties, resulting in the forced eviction of residents and restrictions on their ability to expand or farm their land, as reported.
The Israeli strategy of capitalizing on historic and natural sites, along with areas designated as nature reserves and national parks in the West Bank, has been criticized for undermining the Palestinian tourism industry, as detailed in a 2017 report from the Israeli NGO Who Profits. Out of nearly 40% of tourist sites frequented by international travelers in 2014 that were located within occupied Palestinian territories, only a scant 0.3% of licensed tour guides permitted to operate in the region were Palestinian.
Violence in the West Bank since October 2023
The outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023 has led to a marked increase in violence throughout the West Bank. Prior to October 7, 2023, a total of 881 Palestinians lost their lives across the West Bank in the preceding ten years, whereas 877 fatalities were reported in just over a year following that date, according to UN statistics. Of that number, 857 victims were killed by Israeli military forces, set against 32 Israeli fatalities during the same period, of which 21 were soldiers.
The demolition of Palestinian properties in the West Bank has also surged markedly over the past two years, as data from B’Tselem indicates. Between 2006 and 2024, the actions of Israeli authorities rendered 9,700 individuals homeless, with the year 2024 witnessing a record number of demolitions—841 properties destroyed and 953 individuals displaced.
Airbnb and Booking.com’s responses
Airbnb has not disclosed the total amount donated to humanitarian organizations since its 2019 decision to continue hosting rental properties in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The company stated that it would allocate all profits from rentals in the Palestinian territories to humanitarian causes, directing these funds to the Institute for Economics and Peace, an international think tank based in Sydney, Australia.
An Airbnb representative asserted: “Since 2019, all proceeds derived from host activities in the West Bank have been donated to an international nonprofit, and this practice will persist as part of our broader approach to disputed regions.”
A spokesperson for Booking.com expressed the company’s distress over the ongoing violence in Gaza and surrounding areas, stating: “Our hearts go out to all those affected, and we earnestly hope for a cessation to the turmoil.”
The spokesperson emphasized, “Our mission is to facilitate travel experiences for everyone. Thus, we believe it is the traveler’s decision where they choose to go, and not our place to decide for them.”
They added, “Unfortunately, conflicts exist in many parts of the world, and it is our responsibility to ensure travelers are adequately informed. When an area is recognized as contentious or conflict-affected, we strive to provide relevant information on our platform to help travelers make educated decisions, alongside consulting their own governments’ travel advisories.”
Additional graphics work by Tural Ahmedzade and Pablo Gutiérrez
Source
www.theguardian.com