Report: AirBNB Banishes Host for Discriminating Against Israelis

A picture shows the logo of online lodging service Airbnb displayed on a computer screen i
MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty

The Algemeiner reports: Online vacation rental giant Airbnb acted quickly to ban a vendor after it came to light that she was refusing service to Israeli customers, The Algemeiner learned Tuesday.

The company removed the Amsterdam-based host named “Maria” from the website after she rejected a request by four Israeli tourists with the following explanation: “I support the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement and will therefore not accept guests of Israeli citizenship until there has been a significant change in the question of Palestine. So unless you are well documented activists who work for a peaceful solution to the problem (for whom I will be very happy to make an exception) you will have to look elsewhere.”

An Airbnb representative told The Algemeiner that, “Discrimination like this has no place on the Airbnb platform and our policies prohibit hosts from declining a guest because of who they are, where they come from, how they worship or whom they love,” adding that the company “acted to permanently ban this host from our community approximately two hours after we learned of this incident.”

Read more here.

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