Stepping up campaign against Airbnb, Palestinians urge: 'We can't live there, so don't go there'

[Little Tich]

Source: Jerusalem Post

Left-wing organization Jewish Voice for Peace releases video featuring activists and Palestinians, urging tourists to steer clear of West Bank rentals.

Left-wing organization Jewish Voice for Peace released a YouTube video Saturday to up a joint-campaign against Airbnb's listing of West Bank settlement homes on its vacation home rental platform.

Urging travelers to steer clear of West Bank rentals, the video featured unnamed activists and Palestinians speaking out against Airbnb's failure to "follow international law," which, by United Nations standards, deems "Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal."

"If you go there, you're basically collaborating with settlers who steal Palestinian land," said one activist. "I implore you not to go to Airbnb in the settlements," he said.

The video was released as promotion for the organization's joint campaign with several pro-Palestinian groups, titled "Stolen Homes," which has garnered 146,104 signatories to date in an online petition.

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Stepping-up-campaign-against-Airbnb-Palestinians-urge-We-cant-live-there-so-dont-go-there-454780

About Jewish Voice for Peace:

JVP members are serious about making change. We work with diverse communities across the U.S. to achieve a lasting peace for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis based on equality, human rights, and freedom. Whether you are a grandparent or a student; whether your best work is in strategy meetings, in an art studio, or on Facebook. Whether you want to learn more about the issue, donate, or join a chapter—there is a place for you here.

Source: https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

[oberliner]

1. Airbnb also offers rentals in countries that Israelis are not allowed to set foot in

Such as Saudi Arabia.

[Little Tich]

2. Well, yes - but Jews don't live there.

Palestinians living in the West Bank can look at the settlements, even enter to work, but they can't rent a room there through Airbnb.

[oberliner]

3. Yes, they do

There are Jews living in Saudi Arabia who cannot, for the most part, leave their compounds.

Saudi Arabia: Israelis banned, but Jews now allowed to work here

http://www.timesofisrael.com/saudi-arabia-jews-now-allowed-to-work-here

[Little Tich]

4. While this issue has nothing to do with the OP, I would assume that the number of Saudi Arabian Jews

is very small...

[ericson00]

5. people are tired of the anti-Israel hypocrisy, whether its from

non-Jews, or the minority of Jews who clearly want an easy reason anti-Semitism still exists after the Holocaust.

[Little Tich]

6. If there was an Airbnb listing in the US that was off limits to people of certain ethnic groups, I

would consider it discriminatory too.

I'm not sure how it's hypocritical to point out that the Airbnb listings in the West Bank are discriminating against Palestinians in a way that's very similar to how minorities were once barred from staying in hotels in the US. Perhaps the Palestinians could use a Green book too?

The Negro Motorist Green Book
Source: Wikipedia

The Negro Motorist Green Book (at times styled The Negro Motorist Green-Book or titled The Negro Travelers' Green Book) was an annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers, commonly referred to simply as the Green Book. It was originated and published by New York City mailman Victor H. Green in the United States from 1936 to 1966, during the Jim Crow era, when open and often legally prescribed discrimination against non-whites was widespread. Although pervasive racial discrimination and black poverty limited ownership of cars among African Americans, the emerging black middle class became car owners. In response, Green expanded the coverage in his book from the New York area to much of North America, also founding a travel agency.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book