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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/tripadvisor-among-firms-profiting-israeli-war-crimes">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/tripadvisor-among-firms-profiting-israeli-war-crimes</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">TripAdvisor among firms profiting from
Israeli war crimes</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar">Tamara
Nassar</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2019-01-31T15:46:17+00:00">31 January 2019</span></span>
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<figure id="file-74131"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Online booking companies <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/airbnb">Airbnb</a>,
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/tripadvisor">TripAdvisor</a>,
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bookingcom">Booking.com</a>
and Expedia are fueling and profiting from war crimes
by listing hundreds of destinations in Israeli
settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East
Jerusalem.</p>
<p>TripAdvisor is one of the world’s <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/17/how-tripadvisor-changed-travel">biggest
and most influential</a> travel booking and
recommendation websites.</p>
<p>“The Israeli government uses the growing tourism
industry in the settlements as a way of legitimizing
their existence and expansion, and online booking
companies are playing along with this agenda,” said
Seema Joshi of Amnesty International, which has <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/01/israel-opt-tourism-companies-driving-settlement-expansion-profiting-from-war-crimes/">published</a>
a new report on the companies’ activities.</p>
<p>Listings include accommodations and attractions, and
often fail to indicate that they are located in
settlements.</p>
<p>“Amnesty International is calling for these four
companies to stop doing business in or with the
settlements,” Mark Dummett, an Amnesty researcher,
stated. “They should suspend, withdraw these listings
immediately.”</p>
<p>“We’re also calling on governments around the world
to regulate the operations of these companies, to pass
laws that prevent them from advertising or providing
listings in Israeli settlements,” Dummett added.</p>
<div id="file-74136">
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<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Take a trip with us…to the
lands of the illegal Israeli settlements.
Promise “guns, check points and walls” aren’t
too far away! RT to tell <a
href="https://twitter.com/TripAdvisor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TripAdvisor</a>
to pull out of illegal Israeli settlements now.
<a href="https://t.co/vwVDEsF8Fa">https://t.co/vwVDEsF8Fa</a></p>
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) <a
href="https://twitter.com/amnesty/status/1090555870914768903?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div id="file-74141">
<div>
<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Been to <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bali?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bali</a>?
Done illegal Israeli settlements? Here’s what
you should do next: Tell TripAdvisor to pull out
of illegal Israeli settlements now. <a
href="https://t.co/K5xUllJh44">https://t.co/K5xUllJh44</a></p>
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) <a
href="https://twitter.com/amnesty/status/1090593311105208320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>All of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West
Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Syria’s Golan
Heights are illegal under international law and are
considered a war crime.</p>
<p>In building settlements, Israel perpetuates human
rights violations against the occupied Palestinian
population, including home demolitions, forced
displacement and theft of land.</p>
<p>The increased presence of illegal settlers means a
greater “security” presence by the Israeli army, which
translates into even more violence by Israeli
occupation forces and by the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/settler-violence">settlers
themselves</a> against Palestinians.</p>
<p>Palestinians who live under Israeli military
occupation and severe movement restrictions in the
occupied West Bank – or as refugees in exile – cannot
rent properties in nearby Israeli settlements.</p>
<p>Israel bars exiled Palestinians from returning to
their homeland because they are not Jewish.</p>
<h2>Expanding settlements</h2>
<p>One listing on Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Booking.com is
in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kfar-adumim">Kfar
Adumim</a>, an Israeli settlement east of Jerusalem
near the Palestinian village of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/khan-al-ahmar">Khan
al-Ahmar</a>.</p>
<p>Israel’s high court has given the government a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-judges-give-final-approval-war-crime-khan-al-ahmar">green
light</a> to demolish Khan al-Ahmar and forcibly
displace its residents.</p>
<p>This land east of Jerusalem, in the so-called <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/e1">E1
zone</a>, is where Israel plans to expand its
mega-settlement of Maaleh Adumim, completing the
isolation of the northern and southern parts of the
West Bank from each other and encircling Jerusalem
with settlements.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Israel’s economy minister Eli
Cohen toured Khan al-Ahmar escorted by representatives
from far-right pro-settlement Israeli organization <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/regavim">Regavim</a>.</p>
<p>Cohen called on Israel to demolish the village before
upcoming Israeli elections in April.</p>
<p>“Khan al-Ahmar outpost should be evacuated before the
elections. But even more important, we must deny the
Palestinian Authority territorial contiguity, by
coming and annexing, and applying [Israeli]
sovereignty over Area C,” Cohen <a
href="https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/jerusalem/centerist-shmentrist-kulanu-minister-calling-to-demolish-illegal-arab-shantytown-apply-israeli-sovereignty/2019/01/09/">stated</a>.</p>
<p>Area C is a term for 60 percent of the occupied West
Bank still fully controlled by Israel under the Oslo
accords signed in the 1990s.</p>
<p>The booking sites also drive business to Israeli
“archaeological” attractions in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/silwan">Silwan</a>,
an occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood whose
Palestinian residents Israel is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/palestinians-face-biggest-expulsion-years-settlers-jerusalem">violently
displacing</a> for the benefit of Jewish settlers.</p>
<p>Amnesty noted that Silwan and other Palestinian
villages located near settlements are close to
“lucrative” tourist attractions.</p>
<p>An example is the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-settler-run-tour-east-jerusalem-tourist-trap/19391">so-called
City of David</a>, which not only reaps profits for
the settlers, but is part of Israel’s ongoing effort
to erase Jerusalem’s Palestinian, Arab, Christian and
Muslim characters and remake and rewrite the city’s
past and present as predominantly or exclusively
Jewish.</p>
<h2>Calls to abide by international law</h2>
<p>In a December letter, Palestinian human rights group
Al-Haq and three other organizations demanded that
Booking.com stop listing properties in the occupied
West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied
Golan Heights, and cease referring to these areas as
parts of Israel.</p>
<p>Airbnb and Booking.com facilitate the “continuation
and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the
occupied West Bank,” Al-Haq <a
href="http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/topics/business-and-human-rights-focus/1348-press-release-al-haq-and-others-send-letter-to-bookingcom-">stated</a>.</p>
<p>“By allowing tourists to make reservations in illegal
settlements in the [occupied Palestinian territories]
Booking.com is supporting and helping to finance
illegal activity,” the group added.</p>
<h2>Airbnb leaves West Bank</h2>
<p>In November, Airbnb <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/airbnb-drops-israeli-settlements-listings">announced</a>
that it will delist units in Israeli settlements in
the occupied West Bank following a years-long campaign
by Palestinian and international human rights
activists.</p>
<p>But Airbnb did not extend that commitment to occupied
East Jerusalem, where it has more than 100 settlement
listings.</p>
<p>“Amnesty International is calling on Airbnb to
implement its announcement and remove all its listings
in settlements in occupied territory, including East
Jerusalem,” the human rights group stated.</p>
<p>Despite months of intense pressure from Israel, lobby
groups and US lawmakers to rescind its decision,
Airbnb <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/florida-governor-punishes-airbnb-discrimination-against-israeli-settlers">recently
reiterated</a> its November announcement and said it
would be pulling the rental properties.</p>
<p>In retaliation, Florida’s governor has directed that
his state should cease doing business with Airbnb.</p>
<p>The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah appeared on Al
Jazeera English on Wednesday night to discuss
Amnesty’s report.</p>
<p>“Promoting and aiding and profiting from the
settlements is no different from walking into a store,
robbing it at gunpoint, and then going out into the
street and selling the stolen goods for your own
profit,” Abunimah said.</p>
<p>Abunimah added that states – such as the Netherlands,
<a
href="https://www.booking.com/content/legal.en-gb.html">where
Booking.com is based</a> – must hold these companies
accountable.</p>
<p>“The Dutch government claims to oppose the occupation
but it’s doing nothing to enforce international law or
require its companies like Booking.com to respect it.”</p>
<h2>Expelling human rights organizations</h2>
<p>Israel is already planning to retaliate against
Amnesty International over its report.</p>
<p>Israeli public security minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gilad-erdan">Gilad
Erdan</a> ordered officials to “examine the
possibility of preventing the entry and stay of
Amnesty International in Israel.”</p>
<p>Erdan is also seeking to end the organization’s tax
exemption through Israel’s finance ministry.</p>
<p>Israeli tourism minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/yariv-levin">Yariv
Levin</a> also slammed Amnesty’s report.</p>
<p>“No force in the world will change the simple
historical truth – the Land of Israel belongs to the
Jewish people. We will fight this despicable
anti-Semitic decision. No one can boycott Israel or
parts of it,” he said, <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Will-Amnesty-International-be-expelled-from-Israel-579170">according</a>
to <em>The Jerusalem Post.</em></p>
<p>Any further crackdown on Amnesty would be part of a
broader Israeli pattern of restricting the work of
human rights defenders.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, Prime Minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu</a> announced that he will not renew the
mandate of a human rights monitoring group in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hebron">Hebron</a>.</p>
<p>The mandate of the Temporary International Presence
in Hebron (TIPH) was set to be renewed on 31 January,
as it is every six months.</p>
<p>TIPH was established in 1994, following the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/hebron-still-under-siege-20-years-after-ibrahimi-mosque-massacre">massacre</a>
of 29 Palestinian men and boys in Hebron’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ibrahimi-mosque">Ibrahimi
mosque</a> by US-born settler Baruch Goldstein.</p>
<p><em>Ali Abunimah contributed research.</em></p>
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