Airbnb has come under fire for listing dozens of properties in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are generally viewed as illegal by the international community.

The Palestinian Authority has said that such listings are misleading as they fail to mention the property is on occupied land claimed by the Palestinians.

Offering holiday rental properties in Jewish homes in the occupied West Bank 'helps perpetuate Israel's settlement enterprise', according to the Palestinians.

Moshe Gordon sits outside his guest house advertised on Airbnb international home-sharing site in Nofei Prat settlement at the West Bank

The Palestinian Authority has said that such listings are misleading as they fail to mention the property is on occupied land claimed by the Palestinians

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat warned that Airbnb was 'effectively promoting the illegal Israeli colonisation of occupied land'

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat has sent a letter to Airbnb's CEO Brian Chesky in San Francisco last week demanding the company cease working with settlers.

In it, Erekat warned that Airbnb was 'effectively promoting the illegal Israeli colonisation of occupied land'.

'Any international company like Airbnb that profits from the occupation and from our blood must be held accountable and brought to justice,' said Husam Zomlot, a Palestinian ambassador at-large and former adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Airbnb's criticism puts the global accommodation bookings website in the crosshairs of the increasingly-aggressive global boycott movement - the so-called BDS - which claims responsibility for pressuring some large companies to stop or alter operations in Israel or the West Bank.

Among the West Bank properties listed on Airbnb is a guest house advertised by Moshe Gordon in Nofei Prat settlement. The property lures visitors with a stunning vista of desert landscape and boasting of proximity to both Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. The 'cozy fully furnished' apartment also features cable TV, Internet and hiking trails.

In an email response to AP, Airbnb said it 'follows laws and regulations on where we can do business'.

The company's platform uses Google Maps to automatically suggests an address for hosts but they can manually change it as the responsibility for the accuracy of listings ultimately lies with them.

On Google Maps, Jewish settlements and Palestinian cities are not listed with an affiliated country. Critics also argue that very few foreign visitors realise the meaning of the Green Line, which marks the pre-1967 borders and the land the Palestinians want for a future state.

A spokeswoman for the Binyamin Regional Council, which represents the municipal body for 42 Jewish settlements in the West Bank north of Jerusalem, told the Washington Post that those outposts, which are considered illegal under international law, had 500,000 tourists last year .

Miri Maoz-Ovadia said that 80 percent of those tourists were Israelis, the rest were international visitors - many of them religious pilgrims. There are about 400,000 Jewish settlers today in the West Bank and more than 200 Israeli bed-and-breakfast operations registered in what Israel calls 'Judea and Samaria.'