Booking.com, one of the world’s largest hotel reservation sites, has been warning customers interested in the West Bank this weekend of “take an informed decision for their stay in this area which can be considered as affected by a conflict”.
time explains that the website has been facing for years “to pressure from Palestinian officials and human rights groups”. Like Airbnb or Tripadvisor, the platform is criticized for not mentioning that settlements are illegal under international law.
Booking.com planned to systematically indicate whether hotels or other accommodation for rent in the Jewish-occupied region were owned by Israeli settlers. “Israel rebuffed this warning”highlighted time and the site finally adopted the formula “affected by conflict”.
Not enough for Human Rights Watch
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid welcomed this choice, recalling that his government was fighting against “all false anti-Israel propaganda”. The Jerusalem Post believes that he tried to “put a positive spin” to the situation, even going so far as to thank Booking, while“there remains a label” on these rentals.
The Post also quotes Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch. According to this activist, who had asked tourist sites to boycott all accommodation in the settlements, this platform initiative is a “welcome measure” but it doesn’t stop “his contributions to serious rights violations”.
Thirty-nine other regions in the world are presented as “affected by conflict” on the Booking site, specifies the Jerusalem Post.