Home-sharing platform Airbnb on Tuesday announced it will back off a plan to remove Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria from its rental listings to end lawsuits brought by hosts.
The agreement settles all legal actions brought by hosts and potential hosts who went to court with concerns about listings, according to Airbnb.
Israeli lawyers filed a class action suit against Airbnb in November immediately after it said it planned to remove listings of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria "that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians."
"Airbnb will not move forward with implementing the removal of listings in the West Bank from the platform," the San Francisco-based company said Tuesday in a news release.
"We will continue to allow listings throughout all of the West Bank but Airbnb will take no profits from this activity in the region."
Profit generated from Airbnb listings in the West Bank will be donated to non-profit groups dedicated to humanitarian aid in various parts of the world, according to the startup.
Airbnb added that it will implement the same approach for listings in Moscow-backed separatist regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two other disputed areas where the company previously planned to take action.
The class action suit had sought 15,000 shekels ($4,183) in damages for the lead plaintiff and each other settler host should Airbnb delete them from its listings, a spokesman said earlier.
The decision would have affected around 200 homes in Israeli settlements that had been listed on the platform.
Around 500,000 Israelis live in settlements that dot the West Bank and range in size from tiny hamlets to large towns, in addition to 200,000 living in settlements in East Jerusalem.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan repeatedly attacked the move, saying it represented "surrender" to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Erdan called the move "an unfortunate decision that constitutes surrender to the anti-Semitic BDS organizations and is based on political considerations rather than business considerations."
"National conflicts exist all over the world and the heads of Airbnb will have to explain why they chose to take a racist political stance against some of Israel's citizens," he noted.
However, Airbnb dismissed Erdan's claim outright in an official statement, saying that it "unequivocally" rejects the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.
