It’s called Airbnb.
But now the booking platform would be more appropriately called Err-bnb, because if there was ever a grievous mistake made by any company regarding Israel, this has to be it.
The online platform’s decision to blacklist Jewish-owned rentals in Judea and Samaria is nothing short of anti-Semitism; a gut-wrenching nod to the pro-BDS forces. Need we remind you that BDS has a goal of harming the State of Israel with a commitment on a par with any Hamas terrorist using a balloon to elevate an incendiary device?
We strongly support any efforts made locally, nationally or internationally to boycott Airbnb.
Diplomat and author Michael Oren wrote in a tweet “Airbnb blacklists Jewish apartments in Judea and Samaria—not Palestinian apartments, not apartments in Turkish-occupied Cyprus, in Moroccan-occupied Sahara, not in Tibet or the Crimea. Airbnb’s policy is the very definition of anti-Semitism. No one should use its services.”
He was joined by Yariv Levin, Israel’s tourism minister, who called the boycott “racist and discriminating.”
We couldn’t agree more with both officials and we’re happy to see that world Jewry has gone to social media to express its outrage.
This move by Airbnb doesn’t help the Palestinians’ cause. Indeed, Palestinians working for Jewish-owned Airbnb’s will suffer job loss, which undoubtedly will be blamed on Israel.
We hope that the email addresses or websites of the 200 Jewish locations are made public so that those of us visiting Israel any time soon can support the victims of this unjust action.
Airbnb should be ashamed of this hypocritical move. It will do nothing to bring about a peaceful solution in the Middle East. In the meantime, there’s plenty of questionable “occupations” happening all over the world. Or was picking Judea and Samaria out of 191 customers an easy, convenient way to implement an act of anti-Semitism?
Airbnb, don’t leave the light on for us. We have reservations about your company. We’ll book without you.