Airbnb cuts listings in Israeli settlements

Home-rental platform Airbnb announced Monday it would no longer offer its service in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, drawing an angry response from Israel.

Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, but most countries consider the Jewish settlements there to be illegal.

The company said in a statement the decision would affect about 200 properties "in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians."

"Our hope is that someday sooner rather than later, a framework is put in place where the entire global community is aligned so there will be a resolution to this historic conflict and a clear path forward for everybody to follow," it added.

Read more:'Most' Israelis and Palestinians oppose two-state solution

Israel condemns 'wretched capitulations'

Palestinian and human rights groups had long called on Airbnb to remove the settlement listings from its site. Waleed Assraf, head of a Palestinian anti-settlement group welcomed the development, saying if more companies followed it would "contribute to achieving peace."

Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin condemned the move as "the most wretched of wretched capitulations to the boycott efforts."

"Our ministry has started to prepare immediate measures to limit Airbnb's activities" in Israel, he said, adding that the government was prepared to back lawsuits launched by affected property owners against Airbnb in US courts. 

Read more: Israel gives Bedouin villagers evacuation deadline

The Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers, accused the company of becoming "a political site."

The decision "is the result of either anti-Semitism or capitulation to terrorism, or both," the council said.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat, however, said it was "crucial for Airbnb to follow the position of international law that Israel is the occupying power and that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including occupied east Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute war crimes."

Some 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem — areas that are also home to more than 2.6 million Palestinians. 

Palestinians claimed the West Bank for their future state, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Read more: Almost like staying with friends  —  Airbnb turns ten

nm/rt (Reuters, AP, AFP)

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