Airbnb announcement that it would drop West Bank properties sparks charge of anti-Semitism
The company gives Crimea as another disputed territory where it has removed listings. Critics pointed to other areas under occupation—such as northern Cyprus—where it has not.
Airbnb, a Web-based lodging business, pulled all 200 of its listings from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, generating allegations of anti-Semitism.
The company said in a statement in late November that it was using a case-by-case approach to decide whether to connect hosts and guests for “listings in occupied territories” in the 191 countries where it operates. Its decision-making framework, which included consulting with experts and stakeholders, led Airbnb to remove listings it sees as being “at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.” The company still does business with more than 20,000 hosts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and elsewhere in Israel, it stated.
Activists in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement have long urged Airbnb and other companies to stop doing business in Israel until it relinquishes the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, which it captured during the war in 1967.
