airbnb to remove west bank settlements from its site creditjaafar ashtiyehagence francepresse getty imagesnov 19 2018jerusalem one host moriyah lists the location of her bedandbreakfast on airbnb the home rental site as biblical shiloh israelit sleeps up to 12 guests for under 140 a night it has a hot tub and the area around it offers hikes and springs workshops and holistic treatmentswhat the listing does not make clear is that this bb named peace of the valley lies in a jewish settlement in the israelioccupied west bankmost of the world considers the settlements built on land israel captured in the 1967 war to be a violation of international law even the israeli authorities have deemed illegal some of the unauthorized outposts where airbnb accommodations can be foundon monday airbnb long under pressure from palestinian officials antisettlement advocates and human rights groups to end its west bank settlement listings announced it would do just thatwe are most certainly not the experts when it comes to the historical disputes in this region the company said in a news release our team has wrestled with this issue and we have struggled to come up with the right approachin the end the company said it would remove about 200 listings in west bank settlements that are at the core of the dispute between israelis and palestiniansthe decision prompted an immediate uproar in israelisraels tourism minister yariv levin called on airbnb to rescind its discriminatory decision which he called a disgraceful surrender he said he had ordered his office to come up with immediate measures to limit the companys activity throughout the country without elaboratingreferring to the west bank by its biblical names mr levin said he had also instructed his ministry to promote a program to encourage tourism and accommodation in vacation apartments throughout judea and samariagilad erdan israels minister of strategic affairs also took issue with airbnbs decisionnational conflicts exist all over the world said mr erdan whose duties include combating the socalled bds movement for boycott divestment and sanctions the senior management of airbnb will have to explain why they specifically and uniquely chose to implement this political and discriminatory decision in the case of citizens of the state of israelmr erdan called on the airbnb hosts affected to file lawsuits against the company under israels antiboycott law he also said he would take up the matter with american officials to discuss whether the decision violated antiboycott legislation that exists in 25 stateseugene kontorovich director of international law at the conservative jerusalembased kohelet policy forum and a professor at george mason university suggested that airbnb was on weak groundthis is not about disputed territories as airbnb has listings in moroccanoccupied western sahara turkishoccupied cyprus and more he said in a statement so it is only jewish properties in the jewish homeland that are banned airbnbs approach of singling out jews from all the disputes in the world will put it at odds with us state bds laws and principles of discriminationprofessor