Rather than barring the listings, the company has indicated that it will instead donate any of its profits from the region to humanitarian aid organizations, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which obtained a copy of the settlement.
"Airbnb takes no position on the Host-Plaintiffs' claims, or others' claims, to legal title to the properties on which the accommodations are located," the court settlement reads. "All listings for accommodations located in the Affected Region [the West Bank] will at all times be permitted on its platform, subject to applicable laws, rules, and regulations."
The San Francisco-headquartered company first announced in November 2018 that it would be removing roughly 200 home listings located in the West Bank, explaining in a statement at the time that "many in the global community have stated that… companies should not profit on lands where people have been displaced."
Following a review of the matter, the company said, "we concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians."
"Our hope is that someday sooner rather than later, a framework is put in place where the entire global community is aligned so there will be a resolution to this historic conflict and a clear path forward for everybody to follow," the statement added.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. According to Haaretz, as of 2017, nearly 400,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank, with roughly 40 percent living just outside of major settlement blocs. However, the nation's settlements are largely considered illegal, with the United Nations considering them a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Recently, Israeli authorities forced a Palestinian man to demolish his family's West Bank home or face massive fines, Sputnik reported. "Everything we made we put into this house, which we watched today crumble in front of our eyes and there was nothing we could do about it," Saleh Zreina told the Wafa news agency.
Within days of Airbnb's announcement, the group of Israeli-American individuals filed a lawsuit against the company's move. The lawsuit, which was organized by the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center, claimed that Airbnb was violating the US' Fair Housing Act on the basis of religion.
"The plaintiffs claimed that Airbnb was discriminating against them for being Jewish, given that it still allowed listings by Palestinian Muslims and Christians in the West Bank," the JTA report explained.
The Monday court settlement also saw Airbnb stating that it does not support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which works to "end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians," through organized, peaceful pressure on Israel, according to the rights group.
"Airbnb is clear that it does not intend, and has never intended, to align itself with the BDS movement or to otherwise position the company as adverse to any segment of its community," court documents state.
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump signed a presidential order recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which was also seized during the Six-Day War. The move was widely condemned by global powers.
