“Israel is stealing land specially in the Jordan Valley under the pretext it wants to annex it”, Ashrawi said. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat sent a letter to Airbnb’s CEO last week demanding the company cease working with settlers.
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The Jewish community in Hebron also released a statement following Gennady’s death saying, “the State of Israel should liberate Hebron from the talons of the “terror authority” and begin to rule as an enlightened regime for the security of the residents of Israel”.
“The settlements are important to me and I take action [to support them], but I won’t compromise on the law”, he said.
Palestinians seek to form an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. But the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories – the Israeli military body that oversees the occupied West Bank – confirmed the plan.
Herzog reiterated his commitment to a two-state solution to Israel’s decade-long conflict with the Palestinians, but insisted that certain criteria must be met beforehand. In December, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee posted a lengthy analysis of the European Union’s decision on settlement labeling. The so-called BDS movement claims responsibility for pressuring some large companies to stop or alter operations in Israel or the West Bank, including carbonated drink maker SodaStream, French construction company Veolia and global mobile phone giant Orange. “This system will help curb efforts to boycott Israel entirely, such as those advocated by the BDS movement”.
The battle heated up this week with the release of a report by Human Rights Watch that argued that doing business with West Bank settlements reinforces Israel’s presence there and contributes to human rights abuses.
“Through earning fees from settlement vacation rentals, Airbnb is directly profiting from the continuing occupation and dispossession of Palestinians”.
Israeli forces, however, were later seen protecting the settlers as locals started to pelt them with stones.
PA security commander Majed Faraj’s statement earlier in the week that his department has prevented some 200 terrorist attacks against Israel since October 2015 did not sit well with a number of Palestinian factions who are opposed to such cooperation.
In an email, Airbnb said it “follows laws and regulations on where we can do business”. Israeli politician Zvi Hendel first used the term to describe Kurtzer in 2002, following Kurtzer’s criticism of settlement funding. Many Palestinian attackers over the past four months of bloodshed have been from Hebron.
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At the same time, 155 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks and others during clashes and demonstrations.
