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Business in illegal Israeli Settlements

Amnesty International have just published a report which focuses on digital tourism companies which list holiday accommodation, activities and attractions in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

The report argues that in doing business with illegal Israeli settlements, these companies are contributing to, and profiting from, the maintenance, development and expansion of illegal settlements. It makes the point that by promoting settlements as tourist destinations, the companies are helping normalise, and legitimise to the public an illegal situation.

Amnesty are calling on Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and TripAdvisor to stop listing accommodation, activities and attractions in Israeli settlements, and to commit publicly to no longer provide these listings.

The report also makes a call on governments, based on their international legal obligations, to regulate the behaviour of companies domiciled or operating within their jurisdictions to ensure they do not engage in business in or with settlements.

Image: Tripadvisor Certificate of Occupation

TripAdvisor is the main focus of this campaign because of the company’s relative importance to the tourism industry in Israeli settlements.

TripAdvisor is the most visited online tourism website by foreign visitors to Israel.

It promotes more listings (at least 70) in more settlements (27) than any other digital tourism company - with the exception of Airbnb, which pledged in November 2018 to remove most of its listings in settlements.

Sign the petition to tell TripAdvisor to pull out of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.

Download the full report ‘Destination: Occupation: Digital tourism and Israel’s illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories’ from 

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