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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
PRO-CON
Is Airbnb wrong to bar
Israelis from using its
room rental services?
AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov
Moshe Gordon sits outside his guest house advertised in 2016 on the Airbnb international home-sharing site, in the Nofei Prat settlement in the West Bank. Israel’s tourism minister,
Yariv Levin, recently threatened Airbnb with higher taxes, restrictions and legal repercussions over its decision to remove listings from Israeli settlements.
PRO: Airbnb unfairly
sides with Palestinians
in the West Bank
W
ASHINGTON — “We are most
the Palestinian Authority runs it.
certainly not the experts when it
The successor to Yasser Arafat’s
comes to the historical disputes in
Palestinian Liberation Organization, the PA
this region,” Airbnb stated in announcing that is headed by President Mahmoud Abbas,
it would no longer list rentals by Israeli citi-
who was elected to a four-year term in 2005
zens in the West Bank. Airbnb’s modesty is
and has prevented elections to his office ever
commendable, but its ignorance is insidious.
since.
Its policy for the West Bank subjects
Though the PA routinely abuses the
Israel to a singular global standard and
human rights of Palestinians, Airbnb has
reflects an all-too-common narrative about
nothing to say.
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By empow-
Nor — while blaming the conflict on
ering one-sided Israel-haters, it also makes
Israeli settlement policy — does it seem to
peace less likely, not more.
care that, under Palestinian law, a Palestinian
The West Bank is obviously disputed
can face the death penalty for selling real
territory, but Airbnb sees the dispute only
estate to a Jew or that two Palestinians were
through Palestinian eyes.
sentenced last month to 15 years of
After all, it isn’t leaving the West
hard labor for doing so.
Bank. If you want a place to rent
Second, Airbnb has business in
there, you can use Airbnb to find
some of the world’s worst human
one that’s owned by a Christian or
rights-abusing countries.
a Muslim. You just can’t find any
In its 2018 “Freedom in the
of the 200 or so owned by an Israeli
World” report, Freedom House lists
LAWRENCE 88 countries as “free” — that is
Jew.
J. HAAS
Airbnb concluded that “Israeli
based on their political rights and
settlements in the occupied West
civil liberties.
Bank” are “at the core of the dispute between
Fifty-eight nations are considered “partly
Israelis and Palestinians.”
free” and 49 as “not free.” Airbnb conducts
So, Airbnb believes, what’s not “at the
business in more than 190 countries so, by
core of the dispute” is the rejection of Israel’s definition, it offers rentals in some of the
right to exist that’s broadly shared among
world’s most abusive places.
Palestinians and their leaders; or the incite-
Want to work for Airbnb? Check out its
ment to violence against Jews on Palestinian
office in Beijing, the capital of China, where
TV and social media; or textbooks that teach
Xi Jinping is brutally “re-educating” Uighur
Palestinian school children that a future
Muslims in concentration camps.
Palestine should encompass all of what’s
Want a rental in one of Airbnb’s busier
now Israel; or Palestinian claims that Jews
cities? Try Istanbul, showcase city of Turkey,
have no historical ties to key religious sites in where Recep Erdogan jails opponents and
Jerusalem.
journalists under an increasingly autocratic
Interesting. So, too, is Airbnb’s apparent
rule.
ignorance that Palestinians have rejected
What’s Airbnb’s real motive?
numerous offers of a state, including Israeli
Well, the company announced its policy
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s offer of 2008
a day before Human Rights Watch was
that would have given the Palestinians about
to report on its West Bank listings. It also
97 percent of the West Bank and divided
was reportedly on a blacklist of companies
Jerusalem between the two sides.
operating in Israeli settlements that the U.N.
Airbnb isn’t offended by territorial
Human Rights Council plans to issue.
disputes per se. It operates in such disputed
So, to protect its brand, Airbnb is impos-
ing a singular and wholly baseless standard
lands as the Western Sahara, Northern
on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. How
Cyprus, Kashmir and Tibet.
Nor is it concerned about the issue that
inspiring!
lies behind such disputes, which is the human
Lawrence J. Haas, former communica-
tions director for Vice President Al Gore, is
rights of those involved. That’s true for two
a senior fellow at the American Foreign Pol-
reasons:
First, while Israel occupies the West Bank, icy Council.
CON: Airbnb has no
choice but to comply
with international law
C
OLUMBUS, Ohio — Airbnb, the
under the control of a belligerent occupant
company that connects travelers with
does not thereby become its sovereign
temporary housing, has announced
territory.”
That is the consistent view internationally.
that it will no longer list housing in Israeli
In 2004, the International Court of Justice
settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.
In a press statement, Airbnb explained that said the settlements are illegal.
In 2016 the United Nations Security
it had studied carefully the status of the West
Bank, which is territory of Palestine occupied Council said they are “a flagrant violation
under international law and a major obstacle”
by Israel.
“We concluded,” states the company, “that to peace.
U.S. companies like Airbnb that operate
we should remove listings in Israeli settle-
ments in the occupied West Bank that are at
internationally are sensitive to being on the
the core of the dispute between Israelis and
wrong side of the law.
Palestinians.”
The settlements would not be so harmful
Airbnb had 200 listings of available tem-
if they were small. But over three quarters of
porary housing in the West Bank.
a million Israelis have been settled.
The company’s concern that it
They take up territory that Palestine
was taking a side in a dispute of
needs to be viable as a state.
international significance is based on
That is why, as Airbnb says, the
a longstanding view of the United
settlements are central to the overall
States and other countries.
Palestinian-Israeli dispute.
A commission appointed to study
As a violation of laws of warfare,
JOHN B.
the matter and chaired by former U.S.
the establishment of settlements in
Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, con- QUIGLEY occupied territory is not only illegal
cluded in 2001 that “the freezing of
for governments, it is a crime for
Israeli settlement activity” was necessary if
individual persons.
there was to be a hope of a negotiated Israel-
The treaty establishing the International
Palestine peace. The settlements, moreover,
Criminal Court at the Hague lists acts that
constitute war crimes. The act of transferring
are considered illegal by the international
civilians into occupied territory is on the list.
community.
The International Criminal Court’s prose-
The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949
cutor in fact is currently collecting evidence
forbids a state that takes territory in warfare
with a view to leveling indictments against
to plant its own people there. Israel took the
persons, presumably Israeli officials, for the
West Bank in warfare in 1967.
West Bank settlements.
At that time, Israel’s government con-
At the Hague court, criminal liability falls
sulted its own legal adviser, Theodor Meron,
not only on direct perpetrators of war crimes,
to see whether it would be legal to set up
but on accomplices as well.
settlements in the West Bank. In a formal
This meant that Airbnb executives were in
opinion letter, Meron replied that civilian
settlement “contravenes explicit provisions of jeopardy for being complicit with the Israeli
officials who promote settlements.
the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
Airbnb, by listing settlement properties as
Ignoring Meron, Israel helped thousands
sites for housing, was benefiting financially
of Israelis settle in the West Bank.
and was helping Israel’s settlers financially,
That posed a problem for the United
thereby solidifying the settlements. Airbnb
States, which gives Israel aid. Were we help-
ing Israel do something illegal?
understandably does not want its executives
In 1978, members of Congress asked
to have to worry about going to jail.
the White House if the settlements were
Israel has responded to Airbnb with
legal. Herbert Hansell, legal adviser to the
threats to hurt its business elsewhere. Israel
would do better to take a hard look at its own
Department of State, wrote back that “the
behavior.
establishment of the civilian settlements in
John B. Quigley is a distinguished profes-
those territories is inconsistent with interna-
sor of law at Ohio State University’s Moritz
tional law.”
Hansell explained, “Territory coming
College of Law.