The Center for Constitutional Rights represented two Palestinian individuals, a village council, and a municipality to intervene in Silber, et al. v. Airbnb and bring counterclaims against Israeli settlers who sued Airbnb in Delaware federal court. The intervention marked the first time that Palestinians directly challenged the Israeli settlers living on their land in a U.S. court. The Palestinian intervenors sought to hold the settlers accountable for their role in war crimes, crimes against humanity, as well as unjust enrichment and trespass, and detail their direct involvement in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise.

The Israeli settlers who sued Airbnb have unlawfully appropriated and occupied the properties they list on Airbnb, which are in Palestinian territory that Israel began occupying in 1967. By intervening in this case, the Palestinian intervenors – Ziad Alwan, Randa Wahbe, the village of Jalud, and the town of ‘Anata – sought to protect their interests in preventing continued dispossession and discrimination. They also sought to rebut the settlers’ claims that Airbnb discriminated against them when the company decided to remove settlement property listings from its platform.

Ziad Alwan is a Muslim United States citizen with West Bank residency born in Ein Yabrud, near Ramallah, and, at the time of filing, living in Chicago, where he worked as a truck driver. His family’s property was listed for rent on Airbnb by settler Inbal Levy. Randa is a United States citizen with West Bank residency who was born in California to a Christian Palestinian family. At filing, she was a Harvard PhD student, educator, and organizer. Ziad and Randa, like all Palestinian West Bank residents, are prohibited from entering Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Jalud is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank near the city of Nablus. Its residents have historically lived off their farmlands and the livestock that they graze on the village’s land. The property listed on Airbnb by settler Moriyah Shapiro and claimed to be owned by her and Jonathan Shapiro is on Jalud’s land. ‘Anata is a Palestinian town in the West Bank near Jerusalem and was previously a farming community. The properties listed on Airbnb by settlers Moshe Gordon and Tsofiya and Daniel Jacob are on ‘Anata’s land.  

The original case was brought against Airbnb on November 28, 2018, by 11 Israeli settlers (who are also U.S. citizens), who list or sought to list their properties for rent on Airbnb, and nine U.S. citizens (three who are dual citizens of Israel) who sought to rent Airbnb properties in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. They claimed that under the Fair Housing Act (FHA), Airbnb’s decision to delist illegal settlement properties in the occupied West Bank “discriminates against Jews and/or Israelis on its face and in effect on the basis of race, religion and national origin.” But the properties that settlers listed and claimed to own in this lawsuit are on Palestinian land, some of which belongs to Mr. Alwan, the village of Jalud, and the town of ‘Anata. And yet, because they are Palestinian, intervenors, including Ms. Wahbe, are prohibited from accessing these properties because they are located in discriminatory Israeli settlements, which exclude Palestinians and are illegal under international law.

Mr. Alwan, Ms. Wahbe,  Jalud, and ‘Anata sought to intervene to assert their property and legal interests and show that, as the settlements are both unlawful and inherently discriminatory, the plaintiffs were, in effect, claiming that Airbnb was discriminating against settlers’ ability to dispossess Palestinians and exclude them from their own land. The intervenors sought to bring counterclaims against the settlers for their unlawful trespass and occupation of this land, for their displacement and persecution of Palestinians, and for the discriminatory advertising of these properties through platforms like Airbnb.

Airbnb’s announcement that it would de-list from its platform approximately 200 properties within occupied Palestine owned and/or operated by Israeli settlers was a win for social justice campaigners and the wider movement for Palestinian rights following several years of grassroots campaigning to demand Airbnb and other companies withdraw operations from the occupied Palestinian territory. Airbnb stated that it would not de-list Israeli properties in East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, even though, like the West Bank, they are under Israeli occupation.

The Israeli settlement enterprise violates several rules of international law, including the prohibitions on the transfer of civilians of the occupying power into occupied territory (i.e. Israeli civilians into the occupied Palestinian territory); the forcible transfer or deportation of protected persons within or outside the occupied territory (i.e. Palestinians from one part to another, or out of occupied Palestinian territory); the appropriation of  civilian property without military necessity; and pillage. Businesses, like Airbnb, are expected to identify and mitigate their contributions to human rights and international law violations – including by ending business operations that contribute to such violations.

This case is part of the Center for Constitutional Rights’ larger Palestine solidarity work.