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| Israeli troops stand in front of Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against Israeli land seizures for Jewish settlements, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank |
Israel plans to consult with the US government over a decision by home-renting company
Palestinians who want to establish an independent state in territory including the West Bank that Israel captured in a 1967 war welcomed the San Francisco-based firmโs move, announced on Monday and taking effect in the coming days. Israel called it a โwretched capitulationโ to boycotters.
โWe will approach the US government because 25 US states have sanctions against American companies that boycott Israel,โ Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said on Israeli Army Radio.
โIn this respect, there is no distinction between this part or that part of the State of Israel,โ he said, asserting that the West Bank, which Israel has never annexed, should also fall under the anti-boycott protection.
Palestine Legal, a Palestinian rights group that monitors US anti-boycott legislation, said on its website that some of the laws enacted at US state level apply both to Israel and โterritories controlled by Israelโ, an allusion to areas such as the West Bank.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called Airbnbโs decision an โinitial positive stepโ.
Israeli settlements in occupied territory are considered illegal by most world powers. Palestinians deem the settlements to be obstacles to their goal of establishing an independent state. Israel disputes this.
On its own website, Airbnb said โmany in the global community have stated that companies should not be doing business here (in the occupied territories) because they believe companies should not profit on lands where people have been displacedโ.
Subsequently, it concluded it should remove the approximately 200 โlistings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestiniansโ.
Erdan said Airbnb โwill have to explain why it is taking this discriminatory and racist line here in particular and not in other conflict zones in the worldโ.
Erdan, pointman in Israelโs campaign against the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that wants to isolate it over occupation of land Palestinians seek for a state, offered government legal advice to any hosts who want to sue Airbnb.
Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, urged the U.N. Human Rights Council to release a database of companies โprofiting from the Israeli colonial occupationโ.
Oded Revivi, mayor of the West Bank settlement of Efrat, said Airbnb had violated its own stated mission โto bring people together in as many places as possible around the worldโ.
Israelโs Tourism Ministry said it was looking at options, including new taxation, for restricting Airbnb activities throughout Israel.
Airbnbโs move came on the eve of the publication of a report by Human Rights Watch on tourist rental listings in Israeli settlements. The New York-based group hailed Airbnbโs โimportant recognition that such listings canโt square with its human rights responsibilitiesโ.
Airbnb is considering an IPO next year after announcing in February that it would not make a public debut this year.
