Bed & Breakfast on stolen Palestinian land: Rights groups file complaint against Booking.com
Human rights groups in the Netherlands have filed a criminal complaint against the hotel consolidator site Booking.com, saying the company benefited from listings in “Israeli” settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories, thus constituting a war crime.
Dutch prosecutors confirmed the receipt of the complaint filed by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), Al Haq, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), and the Rights Forum.
“Israeli” settlements built on Palestinian land are deemed illegal under international law. Despite this, Booking.com has listed properties in these areas.
According to Dutch NGO SOMO, Booking.com listed 70 properties in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank between 2021 and 2023. SOMO accused the company of violating the Netherlands' anti-money laundering rules by profiting from listings in illegal “Israeli” settlements.
“We have been working on this complaint for years, responding to calls of Palestinians who have seen their property being stolen to end up as profitable vacation homes for settlers on Booking.com,” said SOMO’s Strategic Litigation Lead, Lydia de Leeuw.
She added that efforts by human rights groups, activists, and even concerned employees within the company to warn Booking.com about its operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have been systematically ignored.
“These unlawful operations support a system of settler-colonialism and racial domination that amounts to apartheid, but companies profiting from those violations and facilitating them hardly face legal scrutiny. This is unacceptable and must stop,” SOMO stated.
Booking.com has denied the allegations, stating that there are no laws prohibiting listings in “Israeli” settlements and noting that various 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 spokesperson for the company said.
