Rights groups accuse Airbnb over listings in illegal Israeli settlements

Rights groups have called for the UK's National Crime Agency to investigate Airbnb over alleged money laundering offences they say it may have committed by listing holiday properties in Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Airbnb, according to two legal organisations which have brought the complaint, may have violated laws that make it an offence to handle money and property knowingly derived from criminal acts through its more than 300 listings in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, the organisations - the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq - announced that they have filed a criminal complaint with the National Crime Agency over Airbnb’s UK subsidiary.

Airbnb is currently listed in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' database of businesses involved in activities in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. 

The filed complaint, one of several coordinated efforts announced on Tuesday, comes after the International Court of Justice July 2024 ruling that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal.

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“At a time when we are witnessing genocide in Palestine, businesses like Airbnb are providing services that deny the Palestinian people their means of subsistence, threatening the viability of the group,” said Shawan Jabarin, general director of Al-Haq.

“Following the finding by the International Court of Justice, that Israel’s occupation is illegal, business activities trading in goods and services that maintain the illegal occupation, must come to an end.”

In 2018, following a Human Rights Watch report which said that Airbnb's listings in settlements were unlawful under international humanitarian law, the company said it would remove listings in the settlements.

But the company decision was reversed after legal action was brought in the US by hosts and guests of the listed properties, with Airbnb saying it would donate all proceeds from the rentals to humanitarian organisations. 

A spokesperson for Airbnb said on Tuesday that the company operates "in compliance with applicable Irish and US laws".

"Since 2019, Airbnb has donated all profits generated from host activity in the West Bank to an international nonprofit, in line with our global framework on disputed territories," the spokesperson said.

Al Haq's spokesperson Zainah el-Haroun said the donation "misses the point entirely".

"It is not enough to simply donate profits. Companies are morally and legally bound to ensure their activities do not support, maintain or benefit for Israel’s unlawful occupation," Haroun said.

"No charitable donation can undo the underlying human rights harms caused by facilitating any aspect of Israel’s unlawful occupation."

Asked whether the National Crime Agency would follow up on the criminal complaint, an agency  spokesperson told Middle East Eye on Tuesday: "The NCA does not routinely confirm or deny the existence of investigations. You should also note that the NCA does not take reports of crime from members of the public."

In addition to the complaint filed in the UK, Glan has also filed a legal challenge at Ireland’s High Court after the Irish police refused to investigate the role of Airbnb Ireland in facilitating the listings of settlements. 

Additionally, Glan has sent a “preservation letter” to Airbnb’s parent company, the first step in proceedings under the US Foreign Legal Assistance statute which allow for the discovery of documents to support the Irish and UK actions.

Glan senior lawyer Gerry Liston said:  “These are the first ever cases to apply anti-money laundering legislation in the UK and elsewhere to business activity in the illegal Israeli settlements.

"They demonstrate that senior executives of companies profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory risk prosecution for a very serious criminal offence.”

middleeasteye.net