Simon Wiesenthal
Center urges Jewish communities to
boycott Airbnb for delisting Settlements
Newsletter published on November 24, 2018
(1) Airbnb faces
Israeli class-action lawsuit for delisting settlements in West Bank
(2) Israeli settler
sues Airbnb for dropping West Bank listings
(3) Class Action in
Jerusalem Court Against Airbnb
(4) Airbnb sued for
pulling West Bank settlements
(5) Simon Wiesenthal
Center urges Jewish communities to
boycott Airbnb for delisting Settlements
(6) Tourism Minister
willing to sacrifice Israel's tourism industry for settlements & fight
against BDS
(7) Germany votes for
anti-Israel 'Decolonization' resolutions at UN General Assembly
(1) Airbnb faces
Israeli class-action lawsuit for delisting settlements in West Bank
Airbnb faces Israeli class-action lawsuit for delisting
settlements
Ori Lewis
November 23, 2018
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Lawyers launched a class action lawsuit
in Israel on Thursday against Airbnb, accusing the company of “outrageous
discrimination” and demanding monetary damages after it withdrew listings of
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The San Francisco-based company said this week it was
removing listings of around 200 homes in settlements after hearing criticism
from people who “believe companies should not profit on lands where people have
been displaced”.
Through her attorneys, Ma’anit Rabinovich from the West Bank
settlement of Kida, who offers guest room rentals, said the move “represents
especially grave, offensive and outrageous discrimination”.
Rabinovich claimed 15,000 shekels ($2,573) in personal
damages. The class action lawsuit would seek an as yet unspecified sum on behalf
of others in the same situation, according to court papers presented at
Jerusalem District Court.
“The company’s decision is in effect directed solely against
Israeli citizens living in the settlements, the petitioner claims, and this is
severe, especially outrageous discrimination,” Rabinovich’s lawyers said in a
statement.
“(It is) part of the long war being conducted by
organizations (of which a clear majority are anti-Semitic) against the State of
Israel in its entirety, and against Israelis living in settlements in
particular.”
Palestinians who want to establish an independent state
taking in the West Bank have welcomed Airbnb’s move. Most world powers view
Israel’s construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian land as a violation
of international law, and Palestinians say it is wrong for companies to profit
from them.
“Airbnb took a decision in the right direction to stop
dealings with Israeli settlements, consistent with international legitimacy,”
Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior official with the umbrella Palestine Liberation
Organization, told Reuters.
An Airbnb spokesman declined to comment on the filing of the
lawsuit.
In a statement emailed to Reuters on Tuesday, Chris Lehane,
Airbnb’s global head of policy and communications, said: “Israel is a special
place and our over 22,000 hosts are special people who have welcomed hundreds of
thousands of guests to Israel.
“We understand that this is a hard and complicated issue and
we appreciate everyone’s perspective.”
Airbnb’s delisting applies only to Israeli settlements in the
West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self rule under Israeli military
occupation.
It does not apply to Israel itself, or East Jerusalem and the
Golan Heights, territories Israel has annexed without international recognition.
Israel withdrew settlers from another Palestinian territory, the Gaza Strip,
more than a decade ago.
Israel strongly objects to international boycotts, including
boycotts of the settlements, which it views as discriminatory.
A 2017 Israeli law empowers courts to award cash compensation
to claimants who prove they have been denied goods or services because of where
they live.
Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Peter Graff and Alison
Williams
(2) Israeli settler
sues Airbnb for dropping West Bank listings
November 23, 2018 6:42am
(JTA) – An Israeli settler sued the Airbnb hosting platform
over alleged discrimination over its decision to drop listings in West Bank
settlements from its vacation rental website.
The lawsuit, which cites Israel’s anti-discrimination laws,
was filed with the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday on behalf of Ma’anit
Rabinovich, The Jerusalem Post reported Friday.
“The law in Israel forbids discrimination based on the place
where you live, and what Airbnb has done is by all means discrimination based on
the place where you live,” said attorney Aviel Flint, a partner in the law firm
Yossi Levy & Co. which is representing Rabinovich.
The case is based on a 2000 law against discrimination in
products and services, which was amended in 2017 to include place of
residence.
The suit also names the Israeli NGO Kerem Navot, which along
with Human Rights Watch published an in-depth report on Airbnb and a on
Booking.com, which offers hotel hosting. It called on both companies to remove
the listings in the West Bank.
Separately, Shurat HaDin, an Israeli human rights group which
has taken up various pro-Israeli causes, is preparing a lawsuit with the
Jerusalem District Court against Human Rights Watch for its involvement in the
Airbnb move, the Kipa news site reported Thursday.
Rabinovich lives in Kida, a West Bank Outpost. She has rented
guests rooms through Airbnb. She heard of Airbnb’s decision in the media this
week. The company has not contacted her over her own properties.
Flint said he expects that the 200 people in Judea and
Samaria who use Airbnb will join the suit, turning it into a class action.
The lawsuit’s documents state that discrimination in this
case was “particularly grave and outrageous” because Airbnb has pulled listings
from only one disputed territory, the West Bank, while continuing to list
rentals in other places of contention such as Tibet and northern Cyprus.
The dispute between Russia and Georgia involved military
invasions, and despite that, Airbnb still offered 300 apartments there for rent,
the petition stated.
The petition quoted explanations from Airbnb that it respects
local laws and customs. “Airbnb recognizes that some jurisdictions permit, or
require, distinctions among individuals based on factors such as national
origin, gender, marital status or sexual orientation, and it does not require
hosts to violate local laws or take actions that may subject them to legal
liability,” the company has stated.
(3) Class Action in
Jerusalem Court Against Airbnb
Class Action Suit Filed In Jerusalem Court Against Airbnb
The court petition stated that the discrimination in this
case was “particularly grave and outrageous” because Airbnb has pulled listings
from only one disputed territory, the West Bank.
BY TOVAH LAZAROFF
NOVEMBER 23, 2018 00:15
Four attorneys filed a class action suit against Airbnb in
Jerusalem District Court on Thursday to protest the US-based company’s decision
to drop listings in West Bank settlements from its vacation rental website that
hosts ads from 191 countries.
“The law in Israel forbids discrimination based on the place
where you live, and what Airbnb has done is by all means discrimination based on
the place where you live,” said attorney Aviel Flint, a partner in the law firm
Yossi Levy & Co.
This is a case of Israeli law and not antisemitism or
politics, Flint told The Jerusalem Post.
The case is based on a 2000 law against discrimination in
products and services, which was amended in 2017 to include place of
residence.
The suit also names the Israeli NGO Kerem Navot, which along
with Human Rights Watch, published an in-depth report on Airbnb and a similar
website called Booking.com. It called on both companies to remove the listings.
The NGOs argued that Israel’s presence in the West Bank was illegal under
international law and that in some cases, the rooms were on land that belonged
to private Palestinian landowners.
The suit was filed on behalf of Ma’anit Rabinovich, a
resident of the Kida outpost, who has rented guests rooms through Airbnb and
heard of the issue through the media without any notification from the
company.
“From Airbnb’s point of view, it was a lot more important ‘to
run’ quickly to the media and tell them about its decision, instead of first of
all informing all those people that were about to be hurt or even to warn them
about their intention to do it,” the court petition stated.
Flint said he expects that the 200 people in Judea and
Samaria who use Airbnb will join the suit.
The court petition stated that the discrimination in this
case was “particularly grave and outrageous” because Airbnb has pulled listings
from only one disputed territory, the West Bank, while continuing to list rentals in other places
of contention such as Tibet and northern Cyprus.
The dispute between Russia and Georgia involved military
invasions, and despite that, Airbnb still offered 300 apartments there for rent,
the petition stated.
The petition quoted explanations from Airbnb that it respects
local laws and customs. “Airbnb
recognizes that some jurisdictions permit, or require, distinctions among
individuals based on factors such as national origin, gender, marital status or
sexual orientation, and it does not require hosts to violate local laws or
take actions that may subject them to legal liability,” the company has
stated.
“Airbnb will provide additional guidance and adjust this
nondiscrimination policy to reflect such permissions and requirements in the
jurisdictions where they exist,” the company further explained.
One would conclude, the petition stated, that “Airbnb has no
policies regarding regions of conflict in the world. It has policies regarding
settlements.”
The other attorneys in the case are Asaf Shubinsky, Chen
Shomart and Hagai Vinitzky.
(4) Airbnb sued for
pulling West Bank settlements
23 November 2018
Holiday homes rental giant Airbnb is being sued in a class
action by a law firm in Jerusalem over its delisting of settlements in the
occupied West Bank.
It accuses Airbnb of "grave and outrageous" discrimination
for not applying the same standard in occupied areas in other parts of the
world.
On Monday, Airbnb said it took the move because it viewed
settlements as "core" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The step was hailed by Palestinians and denounced by
Israel.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Maanit Rabinovich from the
settlement of Kida, and, according to court papers, will seek compensation for
other similarly affected holiday home-letters.
It accuses Airbnb of discriminating against Israelis because
it continues to list holiday homes in places considered occupied in other
geopolitical hotspots, such as Tibet and Northern Cyprus.
Airbnb says it is "evaluating" what to do about lettings in
occupied territories in general.
Israel's tourism minister has denounced the firm's action
against Jewish settlements as "shameful", and said Israeli authorities would
back legal challenges against it.
The move, which affects 200 listings, has been widely praised
by Palestinians and their supporters.
Jewish settlements in territory occupied by Israel in the
1967 Middle East war are considered illegal under international law, though
Israel disputes this.
The issue of settlements is one of the most contentious areas
of dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
Can settlement issue be solved?
More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built
since Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights
in the 1967 Middle East war.
The Palestinians see them as a major obstacle to peace and a
barrier to a hoped-for Palestinian state on land which they occupy.
Israel says such an argument is a pretext for avoiding direct
peace talks, and that the fate of settlements should be negotiated in accordance
with peace accords signed with the Palestinians in 1993.
(5) Simon Wiesenthal
Center urges Jewish communities to
boycott Airbnb for delisting Settlements
Airbnb: Israeli uproar as firm bars West Bank settlements
20 November 2018
Israel has denounced as "shameful" Airbnb's decision to
withdraw its listings from homes in Israeli settlements in the occupied West
Bank.
Its tourism minister said Israeli authorities would back
legal challenges lodged by settlers against the US firm.
Airbnb said it had made the decision because settlements were
"at the core" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The move, which affects 200 listings, has been widely praised
by Palestinians and their supporters.
Jewish settlements in territory occupied by Israel in the
1967 Middle East war are considered illegal under international law, though
Israel disputes this.
Human Rights Watch called Airbnb's decision "a positive step"
and urged other tourism companies, such as Booking.com, to follow suit.
In a report released on Tuesday, the New York-based group
said "Israelis and foreigners may rent properties in settlements, but
Palestinian ID holders are effectively barred".
It said this was the only example the rights body could find
"in which Airbnb hosts have no choice but to discriminate against guests based
on national or ethnic origin".
Airbnb has come under fire in the past by Palestinian
officials and human rights campaigners for allowing listings of homes to rent in
Israeli settlements.
However, Israeli leaders and organisations have widely
condemned the latest move.
The Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers, accused
Airbnb of becoming "a political site" and said the decision was "the result of
either anti-Semitism or capitulation to terrorism, or both".
And the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, a US-based Jewish human rights organisation, urged Jewish communities around the world
to boycott Airbnb in the wake of its decision.
Gidi Kelman, who owns an Airbnb-listed property in the
occupied West Bank, told the BBC it was a hypocritical decision.
"I didn't see any action against Turkey when they were
bombing the Kurds," he said, arguing that "lots of countries" have
conflicts.
"I don't think an international company should be dealing
with politics," he said.
The issue of settlements is one of the most contentious areas
of dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built
since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians see them as a major obstacle to peace and a
barrier to a hoped-for Palestinian state on land which they occupy.
Israel says such an argument is a pretext for avoiding direct
peace talks, and that the fate of settlements should be negotiated in accordance
with peace accords signed with the Palestinians in 1993.
(6) Tourism Minister
willing to sacrifice Israel's tourism industry for settlements & fight
against BDS
Airbnb battle threatens Israeli tourism industry
Shlomi Eldar November 21, 2018
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin is willing to sacrifice Israel's
tourism industry for the sake of his pro-settlement ideology and the fight
against the boycott movement.
The global property rental giant Airbnb announced Nov. 19 it
was removing some 200 listings in Israeli settlements located in the West Bank.
”We concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli settlements in the
occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and
Palestinians,” according to the company’s press release headlined “Listings in
Disputed Territories.” The company went on to describe the process that led to
its decision, including discussion of “whether companies should not profit on
lands where people have been displaced.” It concluded by expressing hope “that
someday sooner rather than late … there will be a resolution to this historic
conflict.”
Airbnb had been mulling the issue for some time. PLO
Executive Council head Saeb Erekat demanded in 2016 that the company remove from
its listings houses in West Bank settlements, arguing that they had been built
illegally on Palestinian lands in violation of international law. This week, he
welcomed Airbnb’s decision as “an initial positive step.”
Israeli peace organizations were also pleased. The
anti-settlement Peace Now movement said that even if Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett cannot see the Green Line —
Israel’s internationally recognized eastern borderline — “the rest of the world
distinguishes between sovereign Israel and the occupied territories.” The Yesha
Council, the umbrella organization of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, had
an interesting reaction. It simply accused the Airbnb management of
“anti-Semitism or capitulation to terrorism, or both.” The settlement leaders
added, “A company that has no trouble renting apartments in dictatorships around
the world and in places where there is no semblance of human rights picks on the
State of Israel.”
Airbnb’s decision touched the most sensitive points of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The reactions by the settlers, the peace
organizations and certainly the Palestinians were therefore expected. So was the
Nov. 21 statement by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked that she was considering
legal steps against the company for its "discriminatory" policy.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin took a different tack. He
condemned the “shameful” decision by Airbnb, but also said he had instructed his
office to take immediate steps to curb its operations throughout Israel. Levin
also instructed the ministry to formulate a plan promoting tourism and vacation
rentals in the West Bank.
Levin’s announcement is strange for two reasons. First, does
Levin’s office really intend to market the settlements of Efrat, Tekoa, Sussiya
and Beit El around the world and encourage tourists to go visit settlements
located far from Israeli urban centers in regions at high risk of violence?
Promoting tourism to the West Bank does not require a special campaign,
especially not one at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer. The government and
its affiliated bodies funnel huge amounts of money via every possible channel to
the local councils there and to the various settler organizations. They can
market the settlements themselves to a dedicated target audience, generally
visitors who go there to make a supportive political statement rather than to
vacation. Second, Levin’s decision will harm foreign tourism to Israel just so
he can defend the settlement enterprise if he fraudulently presents a visit to
Tekoa, Beit El or Amona as no different from a vacation in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem
or Haifa. Is his office not in charge of increasing the number of tourists to
Israel?
The Tourism Ministry conducts regular campaigns around the
world at a cost of millions of dollars to encourage visits to the Holy Land. It
offers tours of historic sites and to places holy to the three Abrahamic
religions, along with medical and spa tourism to the Dead Sea, unending sunshine
in the Red Sea port of Eilat and the exciting night life in Tel Aviv,
emphasizing the city’s openness to the LGBT community.
Government figures show that tourism to Israel hit a record
high of over 3.5 million last year. The ministry says every 100,000 tourists
contribute 600 million shekels ($162 million) to the Israeli economy and add
4,000 direct new jobs.
At the same time, the head of the Israel Incoming Tour
Operators Association, Yossi Fatal, is warning that the greater the number of
tourists, the greater the dissatisfaction with their experience due to a severe
shortage of tourist accommodations, among other reasons. Fatal warned Nov. 6
against a “crisis of confidence by global tourism markets in the Israeli tourism
product.” Nonetheless, the tourism minister thinks it makes sense to clash with
the world’s biggest vacation rental agency and try to force it to toe the
right-wing government policy on the disputed settlements.
Airbnb is very active in Israel. In November 2017, the
municipality published a poll among tourists to the city indicating that Tel
Aviv had set a world record in the number of tourists renting Airbnb
accommodations. According to the poll, 51% of visitors to the city rented on
Airbnb compared with only 30% who opted for a hotel (9,700 Airbnb vacation
rentals are available in Tel Aviv, compared to 8,000 hotel rooms). The reason is
obvious: Hotel prices in Israel, especially in Tel Aviv, are high to
prohibitive. Were it not for the Airbnb options, tourist numbers would certainly
have declined and the ministry would have been unable to boast of record-high
tourism.
Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan is willing to
sacrifice Israeli tourism in the name of defending the settlements. He formed a
special unit to deal with the anti-settlement boycott movement, and it
backfired. Erdan essentially set up a thought police that bars anyone suspected
of supporting the boycott in the past or present from entering Israel. In doing
so, he turned the movement into a greater threat than it was. Levin is also
willing to sacrifice Israeli tourism to stand alongside Erdan and shout for the
world to know that a visit to the settlements is the same as anywhere else in
Israel.
(7) Germany votes for
anti-Israel 'Decolonization' resolutions at UN General Assembly
German MPs Slam Fm Maas For Abandoning Israel At U.N.
"I can't understand why Germany on an international stage
abandoned Israel,"said Bijan Djir-Sarai, the foreign policy spokesman and a MP
for the Free Democratic Party (FDP) faction in the Bundestag.
BY BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
NOVEMBER 23, 2018 12:39
German politicians took their country's foreign minister,
Heiko Maas, to task on Wednesday in the Bundestag for supporting eight anti-Israel resolutions
during a UN General Assembly vote dealing with the Israel-Arab conflict.
"I can't understand why Germany on an international stage
abandoned Israel,"said Bijan Djir-Sarai, the foreign policy spokesman and a MP
for the Free Democratic Party (FDP) faction in the Bundestag. Sarai asked Maas
to explain why Germany voted eight times for "one-sided criticisms" against
Israel at the UN. He wrote on Twitter that "Israel friends rightly expect more
from us here. Europe must not let Israel down at the UN." He stressed that
Europe has a "responsibility" toward the Jewish state.
The UN General Assembly’s “Special Political and Decolonization Committee” passed nine
resolutions against the policies of the Jewish state. Germany voted with Syria,
Cuba, Saudia Arabia and Iran , among some of the countries, to condemn
Israel.
Germany withheld its vote on one resolution for a special
commitee to investigate Israel's practices. The anti-Israel resolutions included
charging Israel with violating the human rights of the Palestinians and called
for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria.
The Vice Chairman of the FDP in in the Bundestag Alexander
Lambsdorff tweeted last week: "The UN is totally biased against Israel."
Germany's social democratic foreign minister Heiko Maas, who
said he went into politics"because of Auschwitz," defended the foreign
ministry's decision to vote for the anti-Israel resolutions. Maas said that
"Instead of getting out of the debate at an early stage and getting resolution
texts that are much sharper against Israel, we want to influence the debates and
make sure the texts are not so sharp that they have things that standing there
and we can not support, also not adopt." Maas has refused to join US sanctions against Iran's
regime. President Reuvin Rivlin urged Chancelloe Angela Merkel in October to
support the US sanctions targeting Iran to stop its nuclear program and
terrorism. Merkel rebuffed Rivlin.
Maas sought in August to create a mechansim to bypass US
sanctions on SWIFT--the international financial messaging system that allows
countries to make cross-country payments. The US classifies Iran as the top
state-sponsor of terrorism.
Frank Müller-Rosentritt, MdB? , a MP from the FDP in the Bundestag, also
slammed Maas on Twitter: "Arguments of the Minister do not convince me.
Ger.-Israeli. Friendship is different! For the @fdpbt the last word in this
debate is not yet spoken."
Germany's ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen is despised
by many Israeli diplomats for his anti-Israel activities over the years,
according to Jerusalem Post interviews with diplomats over the last eight
years. A Wikileaks cabel revealed in
2010 that Heusgen , who was Merkel's foreign policy advisor at the time, urged the U.S. to water down its opposition
to the U.N.’s anti-Israel “Goldstone Report” in order to force Israel to freeze
settlement construction.
In a November 2009 cable: “[National Security Adviser
Christoph] Heusgen said that Germany ‘perceives this differently’ and thought
Netanyahu needed ‘to do more’ in order to bring the Palestinians to the
negotiating table. With Palestinians in East Jerusalem getting notices from
Israeli authorities that their houses will be destroyed, it would be ‘suicide’
for President Abbas to move under the current circumstances.
“Heusgen said he could not fathom why Netanyahu did not
understand this. He suggested pressuring Netanyahu by linking favorable UNSC
[Security Council] treatment of the Goldstone Report to Israel committing to a
complete stop in settlement activity.” Heusgen faced criticism for nepotism when
he attained the UN post because he allegedly improperly secured a position for
his wife at the UN.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer tweeted after the UN
vote: "YESTERDAY: Sweden & 27 other EU states back UN resolution to
#EndBullying. TODAY: Sweden & 27 other EU states to join the jackals in
voting for 9 resolutions singling out Israel alone for condemnation."
The US mission to the UN,which sided with Israel on all nine
resolutions, said "The US will no longer abstain when the UN engages in its
useless annual vote on the Golan Heights. The resolution is plainly biased
against Israel; on Friday, we will vote no." The anti-Israel activity of the
German government sparked criticism on Twitter with commentators asking how
Germany squares its statement that Israel's is part of the Federal
Republic's raison d'être with the votes
against the Jewish state.
The US voted for the
first time against an annual resolution condemning Israel's “occupation” of the Golan Heights.
Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and one of Israel's strongest
supporters in Congress, said on his Twitter feed: "I commend the Trump
administration & Ambassador @nikkihaley for standing up to UN bias against
Israel. It's past time to acknowledge the reality of Israel's sovereignty over
the Golan Heights, which should never come under the control of the Iran-backed
Assad regime."
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