The villa is stunning. The private swimming pool; the lush, landscaped terrace with firepit; the long dining table with its expansive balcony view; the pingpong table; the piano. But the jewel in the crown, according to the Airbnb listing, is the experience of watching the sun rise over the nearby mountains from the luxury of the generous master bedroom.
The villa with views of the Judean mountains is in a settlement located on land seized from Palestinians and considered illegal under international humanitarian law. Only a handful of Palestinians are allowed to enter this, and other, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, usually as labourers with special permits.
Exclusive analysis carried out by the Guardian found 760 rooms being advertised in hotels, apartments and other holiday rentals in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, on two of the world’s most popular tourism websites.
Would you also ask airbnb to delist homes in East Jerusalem owned by Palestinian Israelis? Or is it only Jewish Israelis that should be boycotted?
You want to know what would stop that kind of thinking?
Ending apartheid
Great, what would that look like? Other than buzz words, what specific policies would you like to see changed?
Presently Israel is about 20% Palestinians, who have passports, study and teach in the same universities, vote, serve in the government, serve in the highest levels of the Judiciary, have guaranteed rights to practice their religion freely, educate children in their family’s language, etc. Please let me know if you would like sources for any of this. I’m happy to provide them.
Is that why The UN
Is also demanding the same thing?
Do you really see the Palestinians being free? As they’re actively killed?
As for specific policies, how about removing any mention or distinction between any religion in the region.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_freedom_of_movement
How about freedom of movement to start?
What mention of religion should be removed? What is the region?
The article you posted noted that there was freedom of movement before the first Intifada. That was ended by the Oslo Accords, in which both Israel and Palestine agreed to a two-state solution.
Palestinian leadership rejected all agreements for statehood, which led to the talks falling apart. This included a deal that included 91% of the land of the pre-1967 West Bank, and a land trade agreement to compensate for that remaining 9%, and a capital in East Jerusalem. Instead, they initiated the second intifada.
Only the colonists naturally.
I love how they stopped prodding once you got straight to the point and they didn’t know what to say.
Just not engaging with foolish arguments.
Who are “the colonists?” Should we boycott Christian Palestinians who were part of the colonization of the crusades? Should we allow companies to do business with Jews in historically Jewish areas like the Old City of Jerusalem or Hebron, even though they are are on the Palestinian side of the Green Line? Do colonists include Palestinians who came to the West Bank from Jordan between 1948 and 1967? Are all Israelis colonists, regardless of whether they are Jewish, Palestinian, Druze, etc?
It seems like the comment was either a cowardly way of avoiding saying “yes, boycott the Jews,” or else it came from a place of astounding historical ignorance. Either way, it’s not worth my time to continue.
Will the reply to this be a thoughtful, informed response, or a zingy one-liner designed to dunk on an unpopular opinion?