Urgent Appeal to Delist Properties in Illegal Israeli Settlements

Dear Mr. Chesky,

I write to you as a global citizen and Airbnb community member deeply concerned with your company’s continued listings in illegal Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Airbnb’s mission is “to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere.”

Yet, by facilitating rentals in Israeli colonies—recognized under international law as illegal—Airbnb is not only betraying this principle, but actively profiting from a brutal military occupation and the ongoing crime of genocide being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people.

As highlighted in the most recent report by Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the oPt, Airbnb has nearly tripled its listings in these illegal colonies—from 139 in 2016 to 350 in 2025—collecting up to 23% commission on each booking. These listings are not neutral: they operate in spaces where Palestinians are forcibly excluded, displaced, and attacked. In areas like Tekoa, Airbnb enables settlers to market a “warm and loving community,” whitewashing the systemic violence and terror inflicted upon the nearby Palestinian village of Tuqu’.

This is not hospitality—it is complicity in apartheid, dispossession, and genocide.

International legal experts, including the International Court of Justice and the UN Human Rights Council, have warned of plausible acts of genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza and across the oPt. In January 2024, the ICJ ruled that Israel must take immediate steps to prevent acts of genocide. Despite this, the siege, bombing, starvation, and displacement of Palestinians have only intensified. Under these conditions, Airbnb’s continued presence in illegal settlements—listed in the UN database since 2020—positions your company as an enabler of this atrocity.

Your platform’s decision in 2018 to delist these properties was a rare moment of ethical clarity. But your subsequent reversal, reportedly under political pressure, undermined both moral and legal accountability. Now, by donating profits to vaguely defined “humanitarian” causes, Airbnb engages in humanitarian-washing, while profiting from crimes against humanity.

The international legal framework is unequivocal: Israeli settlements are illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Business activities in these areas are in violation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Continuing to profit from these crimes, amid credible and mounting evidence of genocide, is unconscionable.

Airbnb has always claimed to unlock “unique experiences across the globe,” allowing guests to “Belong Anywhere.” But there can be no true belonging where people are violently uprooted. No peace in a landscape scarred by genocide. No hospitality under apartheid and occupation.

We therefore urge you to take immediate and public action to:

1. Permanently delist all properties located in Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territory.

2. Cease all commercial activities that enable or benefit from Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and the ongoing genocide.

3. Realign Airbnb’s operations with international law, human rights obligations, and your own values.

4. Engage transparently with Palestinian civil society, human rights experts, and UN mechanisms to ensure Airbnb is no longer complicit in this historic crime.

The world is watching. Your company has a choice—to stand for justice and human dignity or to profit from one of the most egregious atrocities of our time.

I am exploring other options as I speak. Please don’t write back and say that you are sorry. If Airbnb is not willing to actually do anything about it, then I don’t want to hear “sorry.”

Sincerely,

Nancy Perin