150,000 signatures to be delivered to Airbnb HQ, Dublin calling for delisting rental properties in Illegal West Bank Settlements

A petition signed by more than 150,000 will be delivered to Airbnb European HQ in Dublin on Friday 1pm by Irish campaigning organisation Uplift. The petition calls on Airbnb to delist properties in Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.

Speaking ahead of the action Uplift representative Siobhán O’Donoghue said ‘airbnb has been allowing Israeli settlers in the West Bank to list their homes as “in Israel” with no mention that they are on occupied Palestinian land. She continued ‘according to international law and official US policy, Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal.’

The signatures were collected across the world in recent months by a group of organisations known as the ‘Stolen Homes Coalition’ – SumOfUs, Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK, American Muslims for Palestine, the US Palestinian Community Network, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Friends of Sabeel North America and Irish based Uplift.

Participants at event outside Airbnb HQ will reiterate the growing demand for Airbnb to delist properties in the West Bank. (to be agreed) Ms. Jilan Abdalmajid, Deputy Head of the Palestinian Embassy in Ireland will draw attention to Airbnb misleading potential renters and aiding the Israeli government in laying permanent claim to all the land under its control. Some of the proprietors have explicitly discriminated against people with Arab or Palestinian names, in direct violation of Airbnb’s stated policies.

Fatin al Tamimi from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign will speak about the UN plans to establish a database of all companies implicated in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Unless Airbnb immediately delists Israeli settlement rentals in the West Bank, they will be included in the first draft of the database to be released in June.