Imagine a gorgeous home for your next getaway: a well-stocked kitchen, pool out the patio doors, nice linens, flowers on the bedside table. Sounds great, right? Here’s the problem:
That house: stolen.
That land: stolen.
The roads on that stolen land to take you to the stolen house: segregated.
The borders and checkpoints and airports you took to get there: closed to the very people whose homes they are.
Airbnb, the global tourism giant, is profiting from vacation rentals in Israeli settlements, built on stolen Palestinian land and illegal under international law. Airbnb’s anti-discrimination policy states that they prohibit listings that promote racism, discrimination, or harm to individuals or groups, and require all users to comply with local laws. But their listings in settlements are just another example of corporations turning a blind eye to violations of international law so they can profit from Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine. Every time someone rents an Airbnb in a settlement, Airbnb takes a cut.
This isn’t the first time that Israel has used tourism as both a means and an end: expropriating more Palestinian land and resources in the name of tourism, while also using those tourist images to distract from its human rights abuses. Beach scenes beckon gay men to Tel Aviv — never mind that Palestinian fishermen less than 40 miles away in Gaza can’t work for fear of being shot. Images of fancy wineries promise idyllic getaways — just ignore the illegal settlement outpost beyond the visitor center. And archeological digs offer riveting history lessons — but don’t ask about the Palestinian villages they’re digging under. Settlers know as well as Israeli politicians that tourism is a way to legitimize their illegal presence. (Slightly edited version of a posting on the website of Jewish Voice for Peace, a very active American Jewish group who advocate a peace settlement)
The Israeli government says the land is “disputed”. Sure is! Why is this mentioned on the Epicurus blog? Because what the settlers are doing is seizing land by force, and then not even living in the appropriated housing themselves, but letting the buildings at a handsome profit to tourists. Epicurus would oppose this unjust situation. Imagine if soldiers came and evicted you from a home your family had lived in for centuries, and then let it to foreigners. What level ataraxia do you suppose you would retain? Or would you shrug and conclude it was “God’s will” and wish them well? No. Of course not, that is,if you have any imagination.
The population of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank has surged during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s years in office, growing at more than twice the pace of Israel’s overall population, according to newly obtained official figures. From the beginning of 2009 until the beginning of 2014 — Netanyahu returned to office in March 2009 — the Jewish settler population in the West Bank grew 23 percent, to 355,993 people. In comparison, the overall population has grown 9.6 percent to just over 8 million in that time. Figures for 2014 are not expected before late next year. (http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.631924)
An excellent post, Mr. Hanrott.
If we lived under such outrageous and unceasing injustices, we would probably not believe that ataraxia even exists. Here in a few sketches is an excellent companion to your post today.
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/01/for-the-finest-in-settlement-living-try-airbnb-judea-and-samaria/
Yesterday I was at an Israeli-Palestinian debate. One of the pro-Palestine speakers was a woman from Gaza, who had won a scholarship to study in the UK. When she tried to claim she was in favour of peace, her opposition pointed out that she had celebrated the killer of the three Israeli teenagers before the start of Operation Protective Edge. And she is the most liberal of Palestinians. It’s all very well saying you’re in favour of peace, but no one seems to want to talk about the intentions and beliefs of the Palestinian people and their government. If they did, and if the Palestinians were held to the same standards as the Israelis, the dynamic of the debate would be very different.
I realise I introduced a delicate issue that raises the hackles of many people. But let me put made-up words into the mouth of, say, a typical Palestinian: “Sure, be my guest. Bulldoze my home, by all means. Leave my family without a roof over it’s head. Alternatively, let it to tourists. I realise it is the will of your God. We’ll just sit by the side of the road, wish you well, and starve, because there go our sheep and olive trees as well.” You would think he was stark raving mad. Personally, I would be pretty desperate and would want to fight back, wouldn’t you? Problem: they have guns, tanks, drones, automatic weapons, all sorts of stuff supplied by Americans. My Palestinian only has improvised an daggers and very limited opportunities to fight back.
Being supine is spineless, and if you sit there doing nothing all their land will be taken. It’s a moral problem. Sorry about the teenagers – that’s horrible, but then many more Palestinians are being killed than Israelis (it’s just that the media don’t value their lives equally, or report their plight as well. There’s a reason for that!) . Do a deal, dammit! Stop it! Moderate Jews all want it.