The announcement comes after years of sustained advocacy from a coalition of groups known as the StolenHomes Coalition – which included organizations like SumOfUs, CODEPINK, American Muslims for Palestine, the US Palestinian Community Network, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Friends of Sabeel North America, Up Lift and Jewish Voice for Peace.

More than 150,000 people from around the world joined onto a petition urging Airbnb to stop listing vacation rentals in Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land and deemed illegal under international law. Thousands of people also left reviews on a microsite parodying Airbnb rental listings and calling attention to the fact that the vacation rental company continues to list Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Coalition members held a protest at Airbnb’s European headquarters in Ireland, and in other cities around the world. Coalition members also called on Fidelity Investments, one of Airbnb’s largest owners, to push the company to stop the illegal rentals and released a video campaign called “We Can’t Live There. So Don’t Go There,” featuring Palestinians speaking directly to Airbnb’s new marketing campaign “Don’t Go There. Live There,” and urging potential travelers not to rent vacation homes in settlements, which are often not clearly identified as such in the website’s listings.

“There’s no delicate way to say this: for years, Airbnb has profited from rental suites built on top of the ruins of Palestinian lives and livelihoods,” explained Angus Wong , Campaign Manager from SumOfUs.org. “While it is good that Airbnb finally recognized the illegal nature of these listings and pulled them from their website – this decision took way too long. By listing these stolen homes for years, Airbnb directly helped Israeli settlers legitimize their occupation of stolen Palestinian land, contributing to the Israeli government's decades-long policies of occupation, discrimination and dispossession. We will be monitoring Airbnb to make sure that no more illegal rental properties built on Palestinian land are listed on the site – and urge Airbnb to take steps to make amends to the Palestinian people by donating profits from these illegal listings to Palestinian organizations working to provide services to people amidst the Israeli occupation.”

“The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) celebrates the decision by Airbnb to finally act on its stated values of inclusiveness and anti-discrimination,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, National Coordinating Committee member of USPCN, “especially since Israeli settlement listings are the exact opposite of these principles. “They represent exclusive, militarized ethnic enclaves, illegal under international law, that Airbnb helped normalize as tourist destinations. For visitors to Palestine, we hope Airbnb rentals continue to be an important avenue for our people in Occupied Palestine to showcase their hospitality and history. We are happy now that they can do so without the shadow of colonialism as competition.”

#WashingtonDC #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Israel #WestBank #Antiracism #Airbnb #MiddleEast

The Bush administration is scrambling to maintain the U.S. hold on the region. Plans for a quick strike against Iraq are going up in flames. On one hand, the U.S. is encouraging Israel, and attempting to demonize the Palestinian resistance. On the other hand, Bush is trying to shore up the puppet governments in the region. Not an easy task, when people all over the Arab world can turn on their TV's and watch Israeli troops fire on children and ambulance drivers. From Egypt to Saudi Arabia, people want their governments to take action in defense of Palestine.

U.S. representatives dispatched to the Middle East say they are attempting “revive the peace process.” In truth, they are working to prolong the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They hope the Palestinian people will surrender. This will not happen.

Since Sept. 28, 2000, the Israeli military and the illegal Jewish settlers have killed more than 1300 Palestinians, 30% of whom are children. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been injured, many maimed for life. Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel and the architect of the last eighteen months of continuous war on the Palestinian people, has shown no signs of letting up or slowing down.

Sharon is a man of war, the former Defense Minister during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the person responsible for over 3000 deaths – mostly women, children, and the elderly – in the refugee camp massacres of Sabra and Shatila. When one hears the term “terrorist,” Sharon's name immediately comes to mind. He knows nothing but war, and is terrorizing the entire Palestinian population; again including those who live in refugee camps, but this time, refugee camps in Palestine itself.

Israeli incursions into the illegally occupied territories of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem have extended to the refugee camps of Balata in Nablus, Rafah in Gaza, Tulkarem, Jenin, and Dheisheh in Bethlehem. The result of this escalation has been over 200 murders, including women and children, and the decimation of the already dreadful infrastructure in the camps. Dozens of homes have been demolished and thousands of men and women have been arrested.

The most recent attacks on the refugee camps have set a new standard for Sharon's barbarism. The Palestinians living in these camps are the people who were originally exiled from their homes in 1948. Their land was confiscated and their homes destroyed. Now they and their children are once again experiencing the destruction of their lives and property.

The Oslo Accords and all the other “peace” agreements between the Israelis and the Palestinians have essentially been made null and void by Sharon and his total disregard for human and civil rights. He has effectively made a prisoner of Yassir Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and even refused to allow Arafat to travel to Beirut for the recent Arab League summit.

Now, the Palestinian people have come to the realization that peace can never be negotiated with a person like Sharon. They have even begun to develop a deep-rooted resentment for those fellow Palestinians who continue to claim that there is a “peaceful” way out of the current Israeli escalation of violence. Palestinians know that the cause of the violence is, and always will be, the Israeli occupation. For anybody to claim otherwise is foolish and short-sighted. The Oslo Accords proved that any peace initiative not based on the complete and total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian lands cannot survive.

It is obvious that Arafat, his ministers and negotiators have failed to protect the Palestinians. It is also clear that Sharon is a despicable human being who has absolutely no regard for Palestinian lives. For this reason, the Palestinian workers and peasants are waging a heroic resistance against Israeli tanks, helicopter gun ships, and fighter jets. They are resisting Israeli occupation by every means at their disposal.

The U.S. is sending four billion of our tax dollars every year to Israel and Sharon. Then they have the nerve to demand that the Palestinians curb their “violence.” If that rhetoric were not so disturbing, it would be laughable. Palestinian homes are being destroyed; Palestinian land is being confiscated; Palestinian civilians are trapped in their homes and villages; Palestinian men, women, and children are being killed – and Bush and Sharon want the Palestinians to curb their “violence?”

The immediate future does not look promising. There is a personification of evil involved in the conflict – Ariel Sharon. He's responsible for more than one massacre and he is proud of it. He wears his record of murder as a badge of honor.

The Israelis will continue to do what they have been doing. The U.S. government will back Sharon up. The Arab governments, tied to the U.S., will sit back and do nothing. It is the courage and commitment of the Palestinian people themselves that will bring the complete liberation of Palestine. Any form of their resistance and struggle is justified. Palestine must be free!

#Palestine #Editorial #Editorials #WestBank #Sharon #MiddleEast

For immediate release

June 30, 2006

Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, condemns in the strongest possible terms the Israeli war crimes committed against the Palestinian people, including the comprehensive siege imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We call upon the international community to take up their responsibility in protecting the Palestinian people from this aggression, and terminating the continuing Israeli policy of collective

punishment.

Since Tuesday, June 27, 2006, Israel destroyed vital bridges, water and electricity stations. As a consequence more than two-thirds of the people have been denied access to water and electricity. Children, the sick and elderly are the first to be affected.

Israel also arrested more than 64 elected Palestinian Legislative Council members, city mayors, cabinet ministers and lawmakers.

Israel, the US and European Union governments have put the Palestinian people under siege for the past few months as collective punishment because they did not approve of the results of the democratic elections Palestinians held. Palestinians understood that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip which took place this past year was meant to turn it into the largest prison with the largest population of prisoners in the world. The

acquiescence of world governments to this indicates complicity in these war crimes.

Nothing justifies the Israeli savagery, including the elimination of water and electricity access to hundreds of thousands of people. Racist media coverage in North America has been trying to minimize the importance of these war crimes.

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls upon all people who support the Palestinian struggle for self determination and return, to demand of their representatives, the media and their governments to ensure that the genocidal Zionist State of Israel ends its siege and fully compensates for the destruction of life and infrastructure that it has

visited upon the Palestinian people. The potential future cost to human life the destruction of the water and power supply may cause cannot yet be determined.

Al-Awda calls upon the international community, Palestine solidarity activists and groups, Arab community organizations including community centers, mosques and churches, to demand:

• Ending the siege imposed on the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
• The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.
• The immediate release of all political prisoners, including all elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
• To provide Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with financial and material support, and to Demand the implementation of their inalienable right to return to their homes and lands from which they have been dispossessed since the imposition of the Zionist state in 1948 and thereafter.
• An end to all Zionist occupation, Apartheid and all other war crimes
• An end to all U.S. aid to Israel which supports the continuing occupation
• Immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.

To find out about a demonstration in your area to protest the siege, please visit the messages posted at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-News/messages

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

#Palestine #Gaza #Statement #AlAwda #WestBank #MiddleEast