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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://imemc.org/article/nakba-day-global-campaign-launched-to-deactivate-airbnb/">https://imemc.org/article/nakba-day-global-campaign-launched-to-deactivate-airbnb/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Global Campaign Launched to Deactivate
Airbnb</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">May 13, 2019<br>
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<p>A global coalition launched a campaign, today, against
the international tourism company, Airbnb, for reversing
its decision to delist properties in illegal Israeli
settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem,
according to a press release.</p>
<p>WAFA reports that the coalition is asking people from
around the world to deactivate their Airbnb accounts on
Nakba Day, 15 May. So far, thousands of people across
the world, from Chile to Indonesia, have answered the
coalition’s call to action and have committed to
#deactivateAirbnb.</p>
<p>Israeli settlements are considered war crimes, under
international law. They are responsible for the
displacement of Palestinians and the theft of their
land. By doing business in these settlements, Airbnb and
other international companies are contributing to the
economic viability of settlements and are normalizing
Israeli annexation of Palestinian land, said the press
release.</p>
<p>Despite the intense documentation and scrutiny from
prominent human rights organizations such as Human
Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Airbnb is
choosing to directly promote discrimination, oppression,
and injustice – and failing to uphold its corporate
responsibility to respect human rights, it said.</p>
<p>“It is time to end this culture of impunity that has
allowed the occupation, oppression and dispossession of
the Palestinian people to continue,” said Salem
Barahmeh, executive director of the Palestine Institute
for Public Diplomacy.</p>
<p>“International companies are complicit in perpetuating
this injustice and must be held accountable. Through the
#deactivateAirbnb campaign, people can choose whether to
be complicit in supporting war crimes or ending them,”
he added.</p>
<p>May 15 commemorates the expulsion of almost two thirds
of the Palestinian population from their homes and land
in 1948. <a href="https://imemc.org/?s=nakba"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">The ‘Nakba’</a>,
meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic continues to this day,
as Palestinians are forcibly expelled from their lands
to make way for illegal settlements, which can then be
advertised as vacation rentals by international
companies.</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
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