22 nov 2018
Petition alleges the home rental company doesn't have a coherent policy on ‘conflict regions’ and its decision to remove listings in Jewish settlements in the West Bank constitutes 'extreme and offensive discrimination.'
The first class action lawsuit against Airbnb was filed Thursday to the Jerusalem District Court by the residents of the West Bank who advertised their apartments on the website after the rental giant removed 200 listings in Jewish settlements in the area.
The petition alleges that removing or restricting the listings solely in the West Bank constitutes extreme, offensive and outrageous discrimination, adding that the court must rule the company should not be permitted to ban listings based on the country of origin of the apartments’ owners.
The main petitioner, Maanit Rabinovitz, is a resident of the Kida settlement near Shilo in the West Bank, and until recently she was one of the hundreds of locals who advertised their apartments on the company's website.
Rabinovitz claims the company never contacted her regarding their new change in policy and she only learned about the listings being removed through the media, adding that the decision was made due to pressure from various bodies calling for a boycott of Israel—led by the civil organization Kerem Navot—which represents an integral part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
"In contrast to how Airbnb tries to present the issue—as if the decision is a result of a careful and detailed examination of every ‘conflict region’—this policy is actually directed solely against those who live in Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” stated the petition.
The petitioner emphasizes there are dozens, if not hundreds of conflict regions in the world that do not have similar restrictions imposed on them by the home rental company. For instance Tibet—where Chinese authorities forcefully imposed administrative control.
The petition asserts that Airbnb has no coherent policy regarding conflict regions seeing as it’s targeting exclusively the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
"As far as Airbnb is concerned, their clients can deny women or minorities to rent apartments from them, offer listings in warzones or in regions where tens of thousands of people have been expelled from their homes. The only thing that is prohibited is to be a settler in the State of Israel,” stressed the petition.
The petition adds the company’s decision directly contradicts their zero tolerance policy when it comes to racism and discrimination.
“Israeli settlers, it turns out, do not belong to the utopian community that Airbnb is trying to create, and are not entitled to the same level of respect," it concluded.
The first class action lawsuit against Airbnb was filed Thursday to the Jerusalem District Court by the residents of the West Bank who advertised their apartments on the website after the rental giant removed 200 listings in Jewish settlements in the area.
The petition alleges that removing or restricting the listings solely in the West Bank constitutes extreme, offensive and outrageous discrimination, adding that the court must rule the company should not be permitted to ban listings based on the country of origin of the apartments’ owners.
The main petitioner, Maanit Rabinovitz, is a resident of the Kida settlement near Shilo in the West Bank, and until recently she was one of the hundreds of locals who advertised their apartments on the company's website.
Rabinovitz claims the company never contacted her regarding their new change in policy and she only learned about the listings being removed through the media, adding that the decision was made due to pressure from various bodies calling for a boycott of Israel—led by the civil organization Kerem Navot—which represents an integral part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
"In contrast to how Airbnb tries to present the issue—as if the decision is a result of a careful and detailed examination of every ‘conflict region’—this policy is actually directed solely against those who live in Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” stated the petition.
The petitioner emphasizes there are dozens, if not hundreds of conflict regions in the world that do not have similar restrictions imposed on them by the home rental company. For instance Tibet—where Chinese authorities forcefully imposed administrative control.
The petition asserts that Airbnb has no coherent policy regarding conflict regions seeing as it’s targeting exclusively the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
"As far as Airbnb is concerned, their clients can deny women or minorities to rent apartments from them, offer listings in warzones or in regions where tens of thousands of people have been expelled from their homes. The only thing that is prohibited is to be a settler in the State of Israel,” stressed the petition.
The petition adds the company’s decision directly contradicts their zero tolerance policy when it comes to racism and discrimination.
“Israeli settlers, it turns out, do not belong to the utopian community that Airbnb is trying to create, and are not entitled to the same level of respect," it concluded.
Via BDS official.
We welcome Airbnb’s decision to end its business in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, following a global campaign led by Human Rights Watch and a number of organizations affiliated with the BDS movement for Palestinian rights.
It is a first step in the right direction to end Airbnb’s profiting from Israel’s theft of indigenous Palestinians’ lands and natural resources.
Airbnb, however, is contradicting its own statement by failing to delist properties in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City. All Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian — and Syrian — territory constitute war crimes under international law. East Jerusalem is no exception.
Socially responsible tourism and pilgrimage should exclude all illegal lodgings. The Israeli tourism industry uses the stolen homes of Palestinian refugees, for instance, as hotels, rooms-for-rent, restaurants and more.
The campaign against Airbnb should continue until it fully complies with its human rights obligations. There is no tourism as usual with Israeli apartheid.
We also recognize Airbnb’s global role in systematically undermining housing rights and unionized work in the hospitality industry. We stand in solidarity with all those organizing to hold it accountable on these grounds.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society. It leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
We welcome Airbnb’s decision to end its business in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, following a global campaign led by Human Rights Watch and a number of organizations affiliated with the BDS movement for Palestinian rights.
It is a first step in the right direction to end Airbnb’s profiting from Israel’s theft of indigenous Palestinians’ lands and natural resources.
Airbnb, however, is contradicting its own statement by failing to delist properties in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City. All Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian — and Syrian — territory constitute war crimes under international law. East Jerusalem is no exception.
Socially responsible tourism and pilgrimage should exclude all illegal lodgings. The Israeli tourism industry uses the stolen homes of Palestinian refugees, for instance, as hotels, rooms-for-rent, restaurants and more.
The campaign against Airbnb should continue until it fully complies with its human rights obligations. There is no tourism as usual with Israeli apartheid.
We also recognize Airbnb’s global role in systematically undermining housing rights and unionized work in the hospitality industry. We stand in solidarity with all those organizing to hold it accountable on these grounds.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society. It leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
Queer pro-Palestine activists will lead a colourful karaoke protest outside famous London LGBT nightclub Heaven on Wednesday, 21 November, when controversial Eurovision 2018 winner for Israel Netta Barzilai performs.
Organized by London Palestine Action, the musical protest will also feature dabke – a Palestinian folk dance – and Palestinian solidarity versions of gay anthems with lyrics re-written to call out Israel for its violations of human rights.
The group, earlier, wrote an open letter to club owner Jeremy Joseph, asking him to “stand on the right side of history” and cancel Netta’s gig .
PNN reports that Queer Palestine solidarity activist Layla White said: “I am a huge fan of Eurovision, but human rights are more important. I don’t want entertainment or LGBT rights used by the state of Israel to ‘pinkwash’ its crimes against Palestinians. We’re calling on people to boycott Eurovision in apartheid Israel next year.”
The protestors are responding to a call from Palestinian queers to boycott Barzilai’s European tour, which said: “Following her Eurovision win for Israel, Barzilai has willingly taken on the role of cultural ambassador for Israeli apartheid, using pop music to keep Israel’s ongoing denial of Palestinian human rights out of mind.”
“As part of this propaganda effort, Barzilai is supporting the Israeli government’s pinkwashing agenda, the cynical campaign to use LGBT rights to shield itself from criticism of its decades-old oppression of Palestinians.”
In 2005 Palestinian civil society organisations called for international solidarity through boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel until it ends its systematic denial of Palestinian human rights.
The cultural boycott targets institutions, not individuals, except where they act as a representative of the Israel state, as Barzilai does.
Organized by London Palestine Action, the musical protest will also feature dabke – a Palestinian folk dance – and Palestinian solidarity versions of gay anthems with lyrics re-written to call out Israel for its violations of human rights.
The group, earlier, wrote an open letter to club owner Jeremy Joseph, asking him to “stand on the right side of history” and cancel Netta’s gig .
PNN reports that Queer Palestine solidarity activist Layla White said: “I am a huge fan of Eurovision, but human rights are more important. I don’t want entertainment or LGBT rights used by the state of Israel to ‘pinkwash’ its crimes against Palestinians. We’re calling on people to boycott Eurovision in apartheid Israel next year.”
The protestors are responding to a call from Palestinian queers to boycott Barzilai’s European tour, which said: “Following her Eurovision win for Israel, Barzilai has willingly taken on the role of cultural ambassador for Israeli apartheid, using pop music to keep Israel’s ongoing denial of Palestinian human rights out of mind.”
“As part of this propaganda effort, Barzilai is supporting the Israeli government’s pinkwashing agenda, the cynical campaign to use LGBT rights to shield itself from criticism of its decades-old oppression of Palestinians.”
In 2005 Palestinian civil society organisations called for international solidarity through boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel until it ends its systematic denial of Palestinian human rights.
The cultural boycott targets institutions, not individuals, except where they act as a representative of the Israel state, as Barzilai does.
21 nov 2018
On Tuesday, thousands of Nigerian activists called on the international community to boycott Israel due to its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
At a rally held in the Nigerian capital, Lagos, commemorating 100 years of the Balfour Declaration in which Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish state on Palestinian land, activists called on the United Nations and other global bodies to isolate the Israeli government for abandoning the two-state solution.
Organized by the Muslim Awareness International (MAI) group, the rally also celebrated Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
“The international community must prevail on the State of Israel to obey all UN resolutions concerning Palestine,” said Dele Ashiru, one of the speakers at the event.
“Israeli belligerence represents both present and future danger for lasting peace in the Middle East and globally. The United States must reverse the declaration and recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Ashiru added.
MAI chairperson, Abdul Waheed Atoyebi, stressed the importance of supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Tel Aviv. “The international community must consider it a duty to support and promote the BDS movement which is gaining ground around the world and checking the aggression of the Zionist state,” Atoyebi said.
Ateyobi’s call to boycott Israel comes just days after Nigeria’s representative at the UN, Ibrahim Umar, blasted the Israeli government’s construction of illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) as an obstacle to the peace process.
“The spike in the expansion and consolidation of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, among others, will have a negative impact on the Middle East peace process as they affect the contiguity and viability of a future sovereign Palestinian State,” Umar said.
Umar added that the demolition of Palestinian homes, forced evictions, and threat of violence from Israeli settlers infringes on the Palestinian right to life, liberty and the security of the Palestinian person. “Nigeria expresses concern that the settlements, which displace and restrict the movement of Palestinians, have negative consequences on their human rights and quality of life,” he said.
Nigeria called on Israel to halt and reverse all settlement development in the OPT. “We believe that the freezing of settlements by Israel is key to establishing peace between Israel and Palestine to co-exist side by side as two viable independent states,” he said.
The Nigerian delegation also called for an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and the restoration of movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza. “The situation in the Gaza Strip and the near collapse of its infrastructure being enforced by the Israeli blockade and military action should be of grave concern to the international community,” added Umar.
- Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
At a rally held in the Nigerian capital, Lagos, commemorating 100 years of the Balfour Declaration in which Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish state on Palestinian land, activists called on the United Nations and other global bodies to isolate the Israeli government for abandoning the two-state solution.
Organized by the Muslim Awareness International (MAI) group, the rally also celebrated Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
“The international community must prevail on the State of Israel to obey all UN resolutions concerning Palestine,” said Dele Ashiru, one of the speakers at the event.
“Israeli belligerence represents both present and future danger for lasting peace in the Middle East and globally. The United States must reverse the declaration and recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Ashiru added.
MAI chairperson, Abdul Waheed Atoyebi, stressed the importance of supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Tel Aviv. “The international community must consider it a duty to support and promote the BDS movement which is gaining ground around the world and checking the aggression of the Zionist state,” Atoyebi said.
Ateyobi’s call to boycott Israel comes just days after Nigeria’s representative at the UN, Ibrahim Umar, blasted the Israeli government’s construction of illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) as an obstacle to the peace process.
“The spike in the expansion and consolidation of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, among others, will have a negative impact on the Middle East peace process as they affect the contiguity and viability of a future sovereign Palestinian State,” Umar said.
Umar added that the demolition of Palestinian homes, forced evictions, and threat of violence from Israeli settlers infringes on the Palestinian right to life, liberty and the security of the Palestinian person. “Nigeria expresses concern that the settlements, which displace and restrict the movement of Palestinians, have negative consequences on their human rights and quality of life,” he said.
Nigeria called on Israel to halt and reverse all settlement development in the OPT. “We believe that the freezing of settlements by Israel is key to establishing peace between Israel and Palestine to co-exist side by side as two viable independent states,” he said.
The Nigerian delegation also called for an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and the restoration of movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza. “The situation in the Gaza Strip and the near collapse of its infrastructure being enforced by the Israeli blockade and military action should be of grave concern to the international community,” added Umar.
- Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
20 nov 2018
Rights activists and NGOs on Tuesday urged Booking. com to follow the example of Airbnb and withdraw listings for rentals in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Airbnb said on Monday it will remove such listings, just ahead of the release of a Human Rights Watch report criticizing the inclusion of illegal Israeli settlements.
Israel strongly denounced Airbnb's decision and threatened legal action against the company, while Palestinian officials welcomed it.
The US-based rights group HRW issued its report on Tuesday and called on Booking. com to follow Airbnb's "positive step".
"By ending its brokering of rentals in illegal settlements on land off-limits to Palestinians, Airbnb has taken a stand against discrimination and land confiscation and theft," Omar Shakir, HRW's director for Israel and the Palestinian territories, told AFP.
"It is an important and welcome step and we encourage other companies like Booking. com to follow their lead and stop listing in settlements."
HRW issued the report on the online reservations firms, entitled "Bed and Breakfast on Stolen Land," along with Israeli NGO Kerem Navot.
It says Airbnb, based in the United States, listed at least 139 properties in West Bank settlements between March and July.
Booking.com, based in the Netherlands, had 26 as of July, it said.
A total of 17 are on land Israel acknowledges is privately owned by Palestinians, according to HRW.
Booking.com had not immediately responded to a request for comment from AFP.
"Israelis and foreigners may rent properties in settlements, but Palestinian ID holders are effectively barred," HRW said.
Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin on Tuesday threatened legal action against Airbnb in the United States and Israel over its move, branding it "hypocritical and disgusting".
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law and major roadblocks to peace, as they are built on occupied Palestinian land.
Around 400,000 Israelis live in illegal West Bank settlements, which range in size from tiny hamlets to large towns. A further 200,000 live in settlements in occupied Jerusalem.
Airbnb said on Monday it will remove such listings, just ahead of the release of a Human Rights Watch report criticizing the inclusion of illegal Israeli settlements.
Israel strongly denounced Airbnb's decision and threatened legal action against the company, while Palestinian officials welcomed it.
The US-based rights group HRW issued its report on Tuesday and called on Booking. com to follow Airbnb's "positive step".
"By ending its brokering of rentals in illegal settlements on land off-limits to Palestinians, Airbnb has taken a stand against discrimination and land confiscation and theft," Omar Shakir, HRW's director for Israel and the Palestinian territories, told AFP.
"It is an important and welcome step and we encourage other companies like Booking. com to follow their lead and stop listing in settlements."
HRW issued the report on the online reservations firms, entitled "Bed and Breakfast on Stolen Land," along with Israeli NGO Kerem Navot.
It says Airbnb, based in the United States, listed at least 139 properties in West Bank settlements between March and July.
Booking.com, based in the Netherlands, had 26 as of July, it said.
A total of 17 are on land Israel acknowledges is privately owned by Palestinians, according to HRW.
Booking.com had not immediately responded to a request for comment from AFP.
"Israelis and foreigners may rent properties in settlements, but Palestinian ID holders are effectively barred," HRW said.
Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin on Tuesday threatened legal action against Airbnb in the United States and Israel over its move, branding it "hypocritical and disgusting".
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law and major roadblocks to peace, as they are built on occupied Palestinian land.
Around 400,000 Israelis live in illegal West Bank settlements, which range in size from tiny hamlets to large towns. A further 200,000 live in settlements in occupied Jerusalem.
The botched Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip on 12 November is delineating Tel Aviv’s failure to utilize its army as a tool to achieve Palestinian political concessions.
Now that Palestinian popular resistance has gone global through the exponential rise and growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, the Israeli government is fighting two desperate wars.
Following the Gaza attack, Palestinians responded by showering the southern Israeli border with rockets and carried out a precise operation targeting an Israeli army bus. As Palestinians marched in celebration of pushing the Israeli army out of their besieged enclave, the fragile political order in Israel – long-managed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – was quickly unraveling.
Two days after the Israeli attack on Gaza, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman quit in protest of Netanyahu’s ‘surrender’ to the Palestinian resistance. Israeli leaders are in a precarious situation. Untamed violence comes at a price of international condemnation and a Palestinian response that is bolder and more strategic every time. However, failing to teach Gaza its proverbial ‘lesson’ is viewed as an act of surrender by opportunistic Israeli politicians.
While Israel is experiencing such limitations on the traditional battlefield, which it once completely dominated, its war against the global BDS movement is surely a lost battle. Israel has a poor track record in confronting civil society-based mobilization. Despite the vulnerability of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, it took the Israeli government and military seven long years to pacify the Intifada, the popular uprising of 1987. Even on this, the jury is still out on what truly ended the popular revolt.
Of course, it should be accepted that a global Intifada is much more difficult to suppress, or even contain. Yet, when Israel began to sense the growing danger of BDS – which was officially launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005 – it responded with the same superfluous and predictable pattern: arrests, violence and a torrent of laws that criminalize dissent at home, while unleashing an international campaign of intimidation and smearing of boycott activists and organisations.
This approach achieved little, aside from garnering BDS more attention and international solidarity. However, Israel’s war on the movement took a serious turn last year when Netanyahu’s government dedicated about $72 million to defeat the civil society-led campaign.
Utilizing the ever-willing US government to boost its anti-BDS tactics, Tel Aviv feels assured that its counter-BDS efforts in the US are off to a promising start. However, it is only recently that Israel has begun to formulate the wider European component of its global strategy.
In a two-day conference in Brussels earlier this month, Israeli officials and their European supporters unleashed their broader European anti-BDS campaign. Organised by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Europe Israel Public Affairs group (EIPA), the conference was fully supported by the Israeli government and featured right-wing Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin.
Under the usual pretext of addressing the danger of anti-Semitism in Europe, attendees deliberately conflated racism and any criticism of Israel, of its military occupation and colonization of Palestinian land. The EJA Annual Conference has raised Israel’s manipulation of the term ‘anti-Semitism’ to a whole new level, as it drafted a text that will purportedly be presented to prospective members of the European Parliament (MEPs), demanding their signature before running in next May’s elections. Those who decline to sign – or worse, repudiate the Israeli initiative – are likely to find themselves fending off accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.
Yet this was certainly not the first conference of its kind. The anti-BDS euphoria that has swept Israel in recent years yielded several crowded and passionate conferences in luxurious hotels, where Israeli officials openly threatened BDS activists such as Omar Barghouti. Barghouti was warned by a top Israeli official during a 2016 conference in Jerusalem of “civil assassination” for his role in the organisation of the movement.
In March 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed the Anti-BDS Travel Ban, which requires the Interior Minister to deny entry to the country to any foreign national who “knowingly issued a public call to boycott the state of Israel”. Since the ban went into effect, many BDS supporters have been detained, deported and barred from entering the country.
While Israel has demonstrated its ability to galvanize self-serving US and European politicians to support its cause, there is no evidence that the BDS movement is being quelled or weakened in any way. On the contrary, Israel’s strategy has raised the ire of many activists, civil society and civil rights groups who are angered by its attempt at subverting freedom of speech in western countries.
Just recently, the University of Leeds in the UK has joined many other campuses around the world in divesting from Israel. The tide is, indeed, turning.
Decades of Zionist indoctrination failed, not only in reversing the vastly-changing public opinion on the Palestinian struggle for freedom and rights, but even in preserving the once solid pro-Israel sentiment among young Jews, most notably in the US. For BDS supporters, however, every Israeli strategy presents an opportunity to raise awareness of Palestinian rights and to mobilize civil society around the world against Israel’s occupation and racism.
BDS’ success is attributed to the very reason Israel is failing to counter its efforts: it is a disciplined model of popular, civil resistance based on engagement, open debate and democratic choices, while grounded in international and humanitarian law.
Israel’s ‘war-chest’ will run dry in the end, for no amount of money could have saved the racist, Apartheid regime in South Africa when it came tumbling down decades ago. Needless to say, $72 million will not turn the tide in favor of Apartheid Israel, nor will it change the course of history that can only belong to those people who are unrelenting when it comes to achieving their long-coveted freedom.
- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.
Now that Palestinian popular resistance has gone global through the exponential rise and growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, the Israeli government is fighting two desperate wars.
Following the Gaza attack, Palestinians responded by showering the southern Israeli border with rockets and carried out a precise operation targeting an Israeli army bus. As Palestinians marched in celebration of pushing the Israeli army out of their besieged enclave, the fragile political order in Israel – long-managed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – was quickly unraveling.
Two days after the Israeli attack on Gaza, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman quit in protest of Netanyahu’s ‘surrender’ to the Palestinian resistance. Israeli leaders are in a precarious situation. Untamed violence comes at a price of international condemnation and a Palestinian response that is bolder and more strategic every time. However, failing to teach Gaza its proverbial ‘lesson’ is viewed as an act of surrender by opportunistic Israeli politicians.
While Israel is experiencing such limitations on the traditional battlefield, which it once completely dominated, its war against the global BDS movement is surely a lost battle. Israel has a poor track record in confronting civil society-based mobilization. Despite the vulnerability of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, it took the Israeli government and military seven long years to pacify the Intifada, the popular uprising of 1987. Even on this, the jury is still out on what truly ended the popular revolt.
Of course, it should be accepted that a global Intifada is much more difficult to suppress, or even contain. Yet, when Israel began to sense the growing danger of BDS – which was officially launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005 – it responded with the same superfluous and predictable pattern: arrests, violence and a torrent of laws that criminalize dissent at home, while unleashing an international campaign of intimidation and smearing of boycott activists and organisations.
This approach achieved little, aside from garnering BDS more attention and international solidarity. However, Israel’s war on the movement took a serious turn last year when Netanyahu’s government dedicated about $72 million to defeat the civil society-led campaign.
Utilizing the ever-willing US government to boost its anti-BDS tactics, Tel Aviv feels assured that its counter-BDS efforts in the US are off to a promising start. However, it is only recently that Israel has begun to formulate the wider European component of its global strategy.
In a two-day conference in Brussels earlier this month, Israeli officials and their European supporters unleashed their broader European anti-BDS campaign. Organised by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Europe Israel Public Affairs group (EIPA), the conference was fully supported by the Israeli government and featured right-wing Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin.
Under the usual pretext of addressing the danger of anti-Semitism in Europe, attendees deliberately conflated racism and any criticism of Israel, of its military occupation and colonization of Palestinian land. The EJA Annual Conference has raised Israel’s manipulation of the term ‘anti-Semitism’ to a whole new level, as it drafted a text that will purportedly be presented to prospective members of the European Parliament (MEPs), demanding their signature before running in next May’s elections. Those who decline to sign – or worse, repudiate the Israeli initiative – are likely to find themselves fending off accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.
Yet this was certainly not the first conference of its kind. The anti-BDS euphoria that has swept Israel in recent years yielded several crowded and passionate conferences in luxurious hotels, where Israeli officials openly threatened BDS activists such as Omar Barghouti. Barghouti was warned by a top Israeli official during a 2016 conference in Jerusalem of “civil assassination” for his role in the organisation of the movement.
In March 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed the Anti-BDS Travel Ban, which requires the Interior Minister to deny entry to the country to any foreign national who “knowingly issued a public call to boycott the state of Israel”. Since the ban went into effect, many BDS supporters have been detained, deported and barred from entering the country.
While Israel has demonstrated its ability to galvanize self-serving US and European politicians to support its cause, there is no evidence that the BDS movement is being quelled or weakened in any way. On the contrary, Israel’s strategy has raised the ire of many activists, civil society and civil rights groups who are angered by its attempt at subverting freedom of speech in western countries.
Just recently, the University of Leeds in the UK has joined many other campuses around the world in divesting from Israel. The tide is, indeed, turning.
Decades of Zionist indoctrination failed, not only in reversing the vastly-changing public opinion on the Palestinian struggle for freedom and rights, but even in preserving the once solid pro-Israel sentiment among young Jews, most notably in the US. For BDS supporters, however, every Israeli strategy presents an opportunity to raise awareness of Palestinian rights and to mobilize civil society around the world against Israel’s occupation and racism.
BDS’ success is attributed to the very reason Israel is failing to counter its efforts: it is a disciplined model of popular, civil resistance based on engagement, open debate and democratic choices, while grounded in international and humanitarian law.
Israel’s ‘war-chest’ will run dry in the end, for no amount of money could have saved the racist, Apartheid regime in South Africa when it came tumbling down decades ago. Needless to say, $72 million will not turn the tide in favor of Apartheid Israel, nor will it change the course of history that can only belong to those people who are unrelenting when it comes to achieving their long-coveted freedom.
- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.
On Monday, the international crowdsourced bed and breakfast company AirBnB announced that they will no longer allow listings that are located in Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
The decision comes after a two year campaign of Human Rights Watch and other organizations, who pointed out that the promotion of listings in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and of international law.
According to a statement on the AirBnB website, “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.”
Israeli military forces began occupying the Palestinian Territories of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Syrian territory known as the Golan Heights in 1967.
Such military occupations are meant to be temporary situations, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are not meant to last for decades, like the Israeli occupation of Palestine has. In addition, it is expressly forbidden, under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to transfer civilians into land occupied by military force.
Over the past 51 years, Israel has, in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, transferred more than 500,000 civilians into housing developments on stolen Palestinian land – most of which was initially seized by the military for ‘security purposes’, then transferred to civilians for colonial settlement takeovers.
In response to the announcement by AirBnB, the Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said that the Israeli government will restrict AirBnB’s operations in Israel as a whole. Levin claimed without evidence that AirBnB was ‘singling out’ Israel, and that the decision was based in ‘anti-Semitism’.
The Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan said that he would be contacting U.S. officials to try to charge the company in U.S. courts for an alleged violation of the Israeli anti-boycott laws recently passed in 25 US states following lobbying by Israeli-government funded lobbying groups.
AirBnB, in their statement, made clear that Israel is not being singled out, and that this decision is based on its newly released international standards on not allowing listings on lands where people have been displaced.
The decision comes after a two year campaign of Human Rights Watch and other organizations, who pointed out that the promotion of listings in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and of international law.
According to a statement on the AirBnB website, “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.”
Israeli military forces began occupying the Palestinian Territories of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Syrian territory known as the Golan Heights in 1967.
Such military occupations are meant to be temporary situations, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are not meant to last for decades, like the Israeli occupation of Palestine has. In addition, it is expressly forbidden, under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to transfer civilians into land occupied by military force.
Over the past 51 years, Israel has, in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, transferred more than 500,000 civilians into housing developments on stolen Palestinian land – most of which was initially seized by the military for ‘security purposes’, then transferred to civilians for colonial settlement takeovers.
In response to the announcement by AirBnB, the Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said that the Israeli government will restrict AirBnB’s operations in Israel as a whole. Levin claimed without evidence that AirBnB was ‘singling out’ Israel, and that the decision was based in ‘anti-Semitism’.
The Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan said that he would be contacting U.S. officials to try to charge the company in U.S. courts for an alleged violation of the Israeli anti-boycott laws recently passed in 25 US states following lobbying by Israeli-government funded lobbying groups.
AirBnB, in their statement, made clear that Israel is not being singled out, and that this decision is based on its newly released international standards on not allowing listings on lands where people have been displaced.