Airbnb to pull out from Israeli West Bank settlements

Accommodation rental firm Airbnb will remove all listings based in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a statement on the company's website said on Monday.

"We concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians," the statement said.

Airbnb did not say when the removal will take place, but the decision will affect some 200 listings, according to the US-based company.

All Israeli settlements are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on occupied Palestinian territory.

"There are conflicting views regarding whether companies should be doing business in the occupied territories that are the subject of historical disputes between Israelis and Palestinians," the Airbnb statement said.

"In the past, we made clear that we would operate in this area as allowed by law. We did this because we believe that people-to-people travel has considerable value and we want to help bring people together in as many places as possible around the world," the statement continued.

"Since then, we spent considerable time speaking to various experts. We know that people will disagree with this decision and appreciate their perspective."

Airbnb said that as part of their decision-making framework, they "evaluate whether the existence of listings is contributing to existing human suffering" and "determine whether the existence of listings in the occupied territory has a direct connection to the larger dispute in the region".

More than 600,000 settlers live among 2.9 million Palestinians in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.

As a financial incentive for the expansion of settlements, the average settler receives three times more in public subsidies than a resident of Israel within its pre-1967 borders, or Green Line.

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