Airbnb
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- Published on Tuesday, 20 November 2018 15:14
- Written by editor
A,
Great News! Yesterday people all over the world celebrated an important victory for Palestinian human rights.
After years of sustained pressure, tech giant Airbnb finally agreed to remove all of its listings located in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. This move deals a huge blow to the settlement activity that displaces, destroys, and steals Palestinian land.
Not only is settlement expansion wrong, it is against international law and in violation of the Geneva Conventions. And until yesterday, Airbnb, a 38 billion dollar corporation, continued to profit off these illegal listings. This victory sends a strong message we will hold all corporations accountable for attempting to profit off of human rights abuses in Palestine.
You are one of the people that... help make this win happen! More than 150,000 members like you signed a petition against Airbnb and we delivered your demands right to Airbnb’s doorsteps. The company’s offices in San Francisco, Dublin, London, Paris, and Portland as well as 17 branches of a large Airbnb shareholder, Fidelity Investments, all heard your voice.
We also connected with activists in the West Bank. While digging through old photos of our International Day of Action, we found a picture of now-famed activist Ahed Tamini protesting Airbnb in the village of Nabi Saleh. We didn't know of her involvement in the campaign until today!
And that's not all, to get the company's attention, we built a brand-damaging microsite parodying Airbnb illegal rental listings in the West Bank.
We worked with groups like Human Rights Watch, and yesterday, one day before the human rights group was set to release its damning report, Airbnb agreed to delist over 200 illegal rentals.
Airbnb is already facing backlash about its decision, so we must continue to pressure the company to follow through with its decision to delist illegal homes. With your help, we will also continue to call on tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Paypal to end its discriminatory practices against Palestinians. Finally, we will continue to call on AXA to get the insurance giant to stop its investments in Israeli weapons and banks that finance Israel’s illegal settlement expansion
This amazing win took tons of time and resources, and a whole lot of people power, to sustain it -- and to keep making huge impacts like this we need your support.
As a Palestinian whose family was displaced by settlement expansion, this victory means so much to me. The hundreds of thousands of people and multiple organizations that have been toiling for years to move this important work inspired me to believe that human rights were a possibility for my family and all Palestinians enduring the daily fear of losing their homes.
The StolenHomes Coalition that SumOfUs was part of led this tremendous effort: CODEPINK, American Muslims for Palestine, the US Palestinian Community Network, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Friends of Sabeel North America, Up Lift and Jewish Voice for Peace.
We are not done fighting for Palestinian human rights. Close to 140,000 SumOfUs members are calling on French insurance giant, AXA, to stop investing in Israeli weapons maker Elbit Systems, and banks that finance Israel’s illegal settlement expansion in Palestine. We are also actively talking to groups in the West Bank to fight back against Google Maps' discriminatory practice of erasing Palestinian villages which regularly puts Palestinian lives in danger as they mistakenly walk into illegal Israeli settlements and faced with violence from settlers.
These ongoing campaigns take resources and time, and for us to sustain this in the years to come, we need your support.
Thanks for all that you do,
Sijal, Angus, Sondhya and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
Airbnb Just Deactivated Listings In Israeli Settlements In The West Bank And Israel Says Hosts Should Sue, Buzzfeed, 19 November 2018
“Airbnb profits off stolen homes”: 140,000 people, peace groups call to stop rentals in illegal Israeli settlements, Salon, 11 March 2018
Airbnb Parody Microsite, SumOfUs
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