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JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Airbnb House Rental Company Inc
FILE PHOTO: A woman speaks on the phone at Airbnb headquarters in the SOMA district of San Francisco, California, United States, on August 2, 2016. REUTERS / Gabrielle Lurie
The decision, which concerns some 200 lists, should take effect in the coming days, said Airbnb.
Israel captured the West Bank during a war in 1967. Its settlements are considered illegal by most world powers.
Palestinians consider settlements and the military presence necessary to protect them as obstacles to their goal of creating a state. Israel is challenging it.
"We concluded that we should remove the Israeli settlement settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Airbnb said on its website.
"We hope that one day at the earliest a framework will be set up where the entire global community will align so that this historic conflict is resolved and that everyone can follow the path to follow."
Palestinians and their supporters had long lobbied Airbnb to remove the settlements from the list. Israel strongly opposes such boycott calls as a biased approach to the conflict.
Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin called the Airbnb movement "the most miserable of capitulations to boycott efforts".
Speaking on Channel 13 Israeli television, he said that Israel had not been informed of the decision in advance and that it would react by supporting the lawsuits filed. by advocates of Airbnb settlement agreements in US courts.
Waleed Assraf, leader of a Palestinian anti-settlement group led by the umbrella organization Palestine Liberation Organization, praised Airbnb's decision. If other companies did the same, he told Reuters, "it will contribute to peace."
Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat in the West Bank and representative of the Supreme Council of Settlers, Yesha, said Airbnb's decision was against the company's stated mission to help "bring people together in as many people as possible" of cities in the world ".
"When they make such a decision, they mingle with politics, which will hurt the very purpose of the company," Revivi told Reuters.
Human Rights Watch said Airbnb's move had been announced on the eve of a 65-page report on tourist lodges in settlements, including Airbnb.
"Airbnb's decision to end its registration in Israeli settlements is an important recognition that these inscriptions can not reconcile its human rights responsibilities," the group said on Monday. "We urge other companies to do the same." The group announced that its report would be released Tuesday morning.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas that also host more than 2.6 million Palestinians.
Israel views the West Bank, the biblical cradle of Judaism, as a security bulwark in the east. Palestinians want the West Bank for a future state, with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Peace talks sponsored by the United States have stalled since 2014.
Airbnb is planning an IPO next year after announcing in February not to debut in public this year.
Other reports by Ali Sawafta and Stephen Farrell; Written by Dan Williams; Edited by Richard Balmforth
