Online accommodation booking platform Booking.com decided to add warnings to its listings in the occupied West Bank on Friday after years of pressure from the Palestinian Authority and human rights groups.
The Washington Post said the new warning warns those looking for rental housing in Israeli settlements to review travel advisories issued by their governments before booking in the “war-torn region.” .
Foreign travel companies such as Airbnb, Booking.co and TripAdvisor have often sparked controversy for allowing West Bank settlers to offer rentals on their platforms without saying the settlements violate international law.
And many leaseholds, in suburban settlements near East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed to remote bases deep in the occupied territories, refer only to their location as “Israel.”
Human Rights Watch described the added travel warning as a “welcome step” to protect customers from staying in illegal settlements, but it urged tourism companies to refrain from offering accommodation in West Bank settlements altogether.
“This warning does not by itself end Booking.com’s complicity in gross human rights abuses,” said Omar Shaker, director of Human Rights Watch in Israel and Palestine. “This company should be providing rentals in illegal settlements in places like occupied West Bank.”
But the warning could infuriate Israel and accuse Israel and its supporters and those who support its boycott movements, including boycotts of products made in the settlements, of anti-Semitism.
Airbnb backtracked on plans to remove its settlement offerings in 2019 after lawsuits were filed against them in the US and Israel.
Source: Lebanon Debate
