Dutch NGO to prosecute Booking.com for Israeli settlement listings

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 May 2024 16:27
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Booking.com is being accused of "profiting from war crimes by facilitating the rental of vacation homes on land stolen from the indigenous Palestinian population".

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This photo shows a construction site of new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in June 2023 (AP)

Dutch prosecutors are seeking to take Booking.com, an online travel reservation platform, to court for listing rental properties in Israeli settlements, they confirmed on Thursday.

A statement by the Dutch non-profit organization SOMO revealed that the complaint was filed with the public prosecutor in November, jointly with three other human rights groups, but this is the first time it has gone public.

Booking.com is being accused of "profiting from war crimes by facilitating the rental of vacation homes on land stolen from the indigenous Palestinian population".

The spokesperson for the prosecutors, Brechje van de Moosdijk, said that the complaint was being studied, but a timeline or further steps cannot be revealed as of yet.

In response, Booking.com denied the allegations and claimed that there are no laws forbidding listings in Israeli settlements, and some US state laws would prohibit divesting from the region.

"Legal action has been taken against other companies that have tried to withdraw their activities, and we would expect the same to happen in our case," a Booking.com spokesperson stated.

SOMO on its part demonstrated its research showing that the travel platform offered up to 70 listings for properties in the east of al-Quds and the occupied West Bank between 2021 and 2023.

It continued stating that revenues from renting out the properties are "proceeds of criminal activities", and that these proceeds in the Netherlands breach Dutch anti-money laundering laws.

This is not the booking agency's first violation in this matter.

Back in 2022, it announced plans to add a warning to all Israeli-occupied properties in the West Bank, indicating that "visiting the area may be accompanied by an increased risk to safety and human rights or other risks to the local community and visitors."

Failing to list any actual violation of human rights against Palestinians, the company's website was more concerned with its clients' welfare, wherever they may choose to travel, even if it is occupied and usurped land. "Our goal is to make it easier for every person to experience the world," the booking platform's statement read at the time.

When it comes to human rights violations that Palestinians face daily, from 1948 until today, as a result of the Israeli settler colonial presence on its occupied territories, Booking.com could be whitewashing human rights by simply adding a warning message.