Seized, settled, let: how Airbnb and Booking.com help Israelis make money from stolen Palestinian land
As Israel deploys tanks in the West Bank for the first time in 20 years, we reveal how two of the world’s biggest travel companies are helping settlers commercialise stolen land
The villa is stunning. The private swimming pool; the lush, landscaped terrace with firepit; the long dining table with its expansive balcony view; the pingpong table; the piano.
But the jewel in the crown, according to the Airbnb listing, is the experience of watching the sun rise over the nearby mountains from the luxury of the generous master bedroom.
Only a handful of Palestinians are allowed to enter this, and other, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, usually as labourers with special permits.
Exclusive analysis carried out by the Guardian found 760 rooms being advertised in hotels, apartments and other holiday rentals in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, on two of the world’s most popular tourism websites.
Taken together, the listings that appear on either Airbnb or Booking.com could host more than 2,000 people as of August 2024. The villa was just one of them.
Read more on The Guardian
‘No rules’: Gaza’s doctors say they were tortured, beaten and humiliated in Israeli detention
In interviews with the Guardian and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), eight of Gaza’s most senior doctors have given harrowing testimonies of the torture, beatings, starvation and humiliation they say they suffered during months of detention.
All of those interviewed say they were targeted because they were doctors. Most were arrested inside hospitals as they worked; others were taken from ambulances or detained at checkpoints after being identified as healthcare workers. All those doctors interviewed were detained under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which grants the Israeli military sweeping powers to detain anyone from Gaza they say might pose a security threat.
"They stripped me naked, put a blindfold over my eyes and handcuffed my feet. The beatings started from this first moment"
Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia
Some, including Abu Ajwa, believe they were singled out for extreme violence by prison guards and interrogators because they were doctors.
“One of the senior interrogators had given instructions that because I was a senior consultant surgeon they should work hard to make sure that I lost [the use of my hands] and became unable to perform surgery,” he says.
Read the full story on The Guardian
Action! No to Ethnic Cleansing! No to US-Sponsored Nakba II in Gaza!
We must raise our voices to stop Israel's next assault on Gaza!
Send a letter to your reps today: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/86fcf9d51ce7f3d69c38b616a06d6032c3c8d585
Action sponsored by Jewish Palestinian Alliance of Oregon: https://www.jpao.org/
The ugly truth of American violence has never been plainer
Waiting on a western judicial institution to cast judgment on a killing spree financed and endorsed by the west means, inevitably, watching a disjointed ballet of impossible reconciling. The narrative – as enshrined in countless constitutions and declarations and charters which are so often held up as the differentiating marker of superiority of this world over the other – demands moral purity, opposition to injustice, adherence to the principle that all innocent lives are equal and deserving of dignity. The reality is that an ally of the west is killing civilians by the tens of thousands and it would be politically inconvenient to call this wrong now when for months, years, decades it has been deemed perfectly fine.
Read the full article on The Guardian
Omar will be talking about his new book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This at Powell's books this Tuesday, Feb 25th 2025.
US Blank-Check Support for Israel Not Only Enabled Genocide
A combination of pro-Israel advocacy groups and political action committees, including right-wing Christian fundamentalists, neoconservative hawks, and weak-kneed liberals, have not only enabled Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians—they’ve done so much more.
Read the full article at: https://www.aaiusa.org/library/us-blank-check-support-for-israel-not-only-enabled-genocide