Murder and theft in Palestine is the question.
In November, I wrote to the London office of AirBnB. I said…
I signed up as an AirBnB host a couple of years ago, partly because I had a bedroom I could spare for a while and it answered the problem of rising household bills, partly because as a language teacher, I enjoy opportunities to meet and chat with people from different countries and cultures. It’s been brilliant – fun, and enough of an income to be useful. I’m a superhost, and receive mostly enthusiastic, 5-star reviews.
Although I live in a town that’s suffering from a housing shortage, I didn’t worry about the housing campaigners’ boycott, because I wasn’t renting out a flat or house that could have helped solve that. I didn’t worry about the Israel/illegal occupation boycott because (I thought) I remembered AirBnB sorting that out – then I saw your logo appearing on some BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) campaign lists, so I asked around and someone sent me a link to this BBC article from 2019:
My letter continued…
That’s a long time ago, and I assume that, if you were on the ball enough to see a problem back then, you must know by now that resisting apartheid, illegal occupation and war crimes is in no way antisemitic so I assume you have taken further steps since then but I can’t find any record of it.
I’d be grateful if you could let me know the current situation as it’d be quite a serious step for me to close my AirBnB account, which has been such a helpful and enjoyable enterprise. In the meantime, I’ve put my prices up above the average for my location, and put the window for bookings down which has more or less stopped any bookings. If I don’t receive an assurance that you have stopped helping businesses to benefit from properties in illegally occupied territories I will close my account at the end of this year.
Hoping to hear from you soon.
Regards,
Kay Green
I received a reply from the London office saying that they had no responsibility for what happened on their platform and that their Ireland office could not communicate with me unless I approached them directly, which I could apparently do via their website. I then spent weeks in conversation with ‘customer support’ on the website, in which staff went on desperately trying to be nice and sympathetic and helpful whilst neither telling me their policy re illegally occupied territories or putting me in contact with Ireland, so in January, I wrote to the Ireland office….
FAO AirBnB executive (I’m sorry, as I have only had support staff contact, I still don’t have a name for whoever can help with this in the Ireland office)
In November, I started an exchange of letters and messages with AirBnB, wishing to know what your policy is regarding properties for let in illegally occupied territories. Your London office stated that they had no responsibility for your platform and forwarded my letter to you. They said you could not respond unless approached directly, so I took my query back onto the messaging/support system on your website. It is still not clear to me whether my question has reached you, so here it is in a direct letter.
I would very much like to continue as an AirBnB host, and was quite happy doing so whilst I believed you had taken action regarding properties in the West Bank and other illegally occupied territories but according to this story on the BBC website, you rescinded your action…
I understand that you were initially told that BDS was antisemitic, but I thought perhaps recent international court rulings would have persuaded you that it is in fact the responsibility of all of us to act, (See ICJ’s ruling from July 2024) to avoid complicity in genocide and illegal occupation.
Despite this ruling, AirBnB appears on the UN’s list of “businesses involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.” According to the BDS movement website, being non-complicit entails:
- Not being implicated in Israel’s military occupation, apartheid or settler-colonialism; and
- Publicly recognizing Palestinian rights under international law, primarily the right of refugees to return in accordance with UN resolution 194.
I would be grateful if you could let me know whether you are aware of this situation, and whether you are taking action accordingly. I have not yet closed my AirBnB account, so you can contact me by letter, by email (address supplied) or via your website messaging system.
I know this can be a difficult situation for businesses and that there must be multiple pressures on you, but if you could demonstrate that this matter has your attention, and that your aim is to comply with international law, I could consider continuing as an AirBnB host.
Yours sincerely,
Kay Green
They didn’t manage to tell me what their policy was either, so I settled for arranging BnBs and study stays privately via my personal network, then this week, I saw this…
… and decided it was time to tell the world this story.
Whether you are a BnB guest or a host or both, please look into this. It’s a terrible thing to steal people’s homes and use them for holiday lets. It’s hard to imagine anything further from the original, very sociable idea of AirBnB.
Please avoid platforms that may be facilitating murder and theft in Palestine.
***NB I’m booked up until mid March, but if you meet anyone who’s looking for BnB and/or English lessons in Hastings after that, please feel free to get in touch.
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Kay
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Kay Green 