Dutch Human Rights group filed a complaint against Booking
Human rights organisations in the Netherlands have filed a criminal complaint against the hotel booking site Booking.com, it has been accused of having gained profits from the listings in Israeli settlements within occupied Palestinian territories, which the accusers consider as possible war crimes.
Four non-governmental organisations filed the complaint, including the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), Al Haq, Somo, and the Rights Forum. On Thursday, the official spokesman for the Dutch prosecution acknowledged that it had received the complaint.
The coalition accuses Booking. It is involved in money laundering in its business operations in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. These are Israeli settlements that have been constructed within the Palestinian territories and hence perceived unlawful under International law.
Booking. Com has, however, refuted the claims, further explaining that no laws prevent listings in Israeli settlements. The company also stressed that certain portions of the US state law would not allow divestment of the region. ”Legal measures have been taken against other firms that have sought to pull out their operations, and the same would be expected here”, a representative from Booking.com said in a statement.
Dutch NGO SOMO further disclosed that between 2021 and 2023, Booking.com identified 70 properties the state has domiciled in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. SOMO also threatened to report Ahold to the Netherlands’ authorities for breaching anti-money laundering regulations by profiting from listings in illegal settlements.
“We have been working on this complaint for years, responding to calls of Palestinians who have seen their property being stolen to end up as profitable vacation homes for settlers on Booking. She also said that even though some people are still in denial, there are human rights organisations, activists, and Booking employees. Com to inform the company that its activities in the OPT have been dismissed systematically.
“These unlawful operations support a system of settler-colonialism and the racial domination that described itself as apartheid, but corporations with profits from those violations and enabling those occurrences are rarely held legally accountable,” De Leeuw said.
In 2022, Booking. Com said it would start posting notices to customers informing them that they are entering listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Human rights organisations have insisted that stricter measures should address the root cause.
More recently, in January 2014, the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said that there was an exemplary year for the settlers as the Israeli authorities approved thousands of new units in the occupied Jordan Valley. Adding that the size of the seized areas corresponds to state land, which is the largest since the 1993 Oslo Accords, which means that 2024 is the year of record in the declarations of the state land.
At present, there are nearly 700000 Israeli settlers in about 300 settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, which are considered unlawful by the international community. These settlements are illegal to the Netherlands and many other European countries since they think the area occupied by Israel since 1967 is Palestinian territory.
The case Booking.com details the controversy over the legitimacy and rightfulness of the business’s continued operation during the territorial occupation. It also brings into focus matters common in multicultural settler societies, such as colonialism and apartheid-like conditions, as they are referred to in the larger context of the region.
Given that Dutch prosecutors will have to examine the materials presented below, this case may well become an important precedent for how international businesses will be held accountable for their activity in conflicted and occupied territories.
