07 Jul 2020, 11:30am

Congratulations, TripAdvisor

Even after over 300k people around the world called on TripAdvisor to stop selling holidays in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, they still haven't stopped. Please join us in awarding them this Certificate of Occupation for exceptional profits made from war crimes against Palestinians. Share the tweet below.



.@TripAdvisor are still selling holidays in #Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land, even though 300K+ of you asked them to stop. Help us award them this Certificate of Occupation for exceptional profits made from #warcrimes against #Palestinians. Pls RT pic.twitter.com/3m5D0hsNfR — Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) June 25, 2020

Why TripAdvisor?

TripAdvisor is the main focus of this campaign because of the company’s relative importance to the tourism industry in Israeli settlements: TripAdvisor is the most visited online tourism website by foreign visitors to Israel; and it promotes more listings (at least 70) in more settlements(27) than any other digital tourism company - with the exception of Airbnb, which pledged in November 2018 to remove most of its listings in settlements.

Learn to shoot like a soldier, ride a camel or take a tour of historic sites – all on stolen land! Thanks to help from TripAdvisor, these are all activities you can do when visiting one of the many illegal Israeli settlements.

TripAdvisor is boosting settlement economy TripAdvisor lists more than 70 properties, activities and attractions in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. By advertising holiday attractions where Palestinian families once lived, TripAdvisor is boosting Israel’s illegal settlement economy. Tourism helps to normalise illegal settlements Settlements are illegal under international law - their creation amounts to a war crime. Settlements are on stolen Palestinian land. They should not be tourist destinations. Since 1967, when Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Israeli government has promoted the creation and expansion of settlements. By having listings in the OPT, TripAdvisor is helping to normalise the situation.

A devastating impact

Due to illegal Israeli settlements, thousands of Palestinians have had their homes destroyed, their land stolen and their rights to live, work and move freely denied. But online tourism giants, like TripAdvisor, are profiting from these human rights violation

Destination Occupation: download our full report.

Offenders named

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has now released a report on companies with specific links to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Trip Advisor is amongst the hundred or so exposed. Several other digital tourism companies have also been named, including several digital tourism companies including Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Expedia and Booking.com.

Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies are required to “avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities and address such impacts when they occur”.

Tell TripAdvisor and the rest to abide by their international obligations and stop profiting from human suffering - stop advertising holidays in Israeli settlements.

Updates

***Update*** in April 2019, Airbnb announced that they will no longer be removing listings in illegal Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank following a lawsuit by Israeli lawyers. This means they are going back on their announcement to remove listings ‘at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians’. We believe that this move exposes the hollowness of Airbnb’s claims to be a company that values human rights.



***Update*** in February 2020, President Trump proposes a new "peace plan" that proposes to give full control to Israel over occupied Palestinian land in exchange for Palestinian-inhabited land within Israel. It also prevents people from seeking justice under international law. Read more about why this plan is anything but peaceful.



***Update*** in February 2020, The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report naming over 100 businesses including digital tourism companies like TripAdvisor with specific links to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies are required to “avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities and address such impacts when they occur”.

A timeline of the occupation