On 20 November, Human Rights Watch released a 65-page report titled “Bed and Breakfast on Stolen Land: Tourist Rental Listings in West Bank Settlements”, detailing how the travel companies Airbnb and Booking.com facilitate short-term rentals by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The report had been sent out to Airbnb and Booking.com prior to its release and Airbnb responded by issuing a press release on 19 November stating that the company will pull approximately 200 of its listings that are located in the West Bank. Airbnb further stated that it would continue to offer listings in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and that the company does not support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Despite these caveats, Airbnb was accused of being anti-Semitic and discriminatory, and the Israeli tourism minister Yariv Levin instructed his ministry to restrict Airbnb’s operations throughout Israel. Prominent Jewish groups in the U.S. similarly responded with criticism of Airbnb, illustrating the ideological conflation of the West Bank settlements with the State of Israel. Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, for example, penned an open letter stating that Airbnb’s decision would help the BDS movement “isolate and delegitimize the State of Israel.” Palestine Liberation Organization secretary-general Saeb Erakat responded to Airbnb’s move saying, “while we believe that this is an initial positive step, it would have been crucial for Airbnb to follow the position of international law that Israel is the occupying power and that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute war crimes.” Among the backlash to Airbnb’s decision was a lawsuit filed against the company in a U.S. federal court in Delaware on 23 November where 18 Americans sued Airbnb for discriminating based on religious grounds. 11 of the plaintiffs own settlement property in the West Bank and have previously rented out their property via Airbnb, 7 of the plaintiffs were people wanting to rent in West Bank settlements in the future. On 11 December, Mondoweiss reported that Airbnb’s implementation of its new policy towards the West Bank also barred Palestinians from renting out their property through Airbnb. Later on 17 December, Tourism Minister Levin wrote on Facebook that Airbnb had suspended the implementation of its West Bank settlements policy after a meeting with him, however this claim was debunked by Airbnb the following day.
The head of Vermont State Police and the police chief of Northampton Massachusetts cancelled their training trip to Israel scheduled for 2–11 December after a group of local residents, including members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) confronted them about the trip. The week-long seminar and training with Israeli police were organized and funded by the ADL. The ADL have held their Leadership, Resilience and Counter-Terrorism Seminar across the U.S. since 2002 and the two New England police officials’ withdrawal is the first in the program’s history. The withdrawals from the program comes a month after the Researching the American-Israeli Alliance and JVP published their joint report “Deadly Exchange – The Dangerous Consequences of American Law Enforcement Trainings in Israel,” which exposes the real-life deadly consequences of the training trips mentioned above.
The BDS movement also witnessed big victories in resolutions made by student organizations in North America. In Canada the largest student organization, Canadian Federation of Students, voted to support the BDS movement on 19 November. The vote came after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau condemned the BDS movement on 7 November, connecting it to anti-Semitism. At New York University, the Student Government Assembly passed a resolution to divest from companies associated with human rights violations by Israel. Furthermore, the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom (UK) divested from 3 companies target by Palestine solidarity activists: Airbus, United Technologies, and Keyence Corporation, all of which trade military equipment with Israel. The University of Leeds sold off their shares on 15 October and later released a press statement suggesting that the divestment was part of a “climate active strategy” and that the university does not have a BDS policy. However, as University of Leeds Palestine Solidary Group pointed out, the university still owns shares in Shell and BP, suggesting that the divestment in fact was a result of Palestine solidarity activists’ campaign.
On 19 November, the Quakers in Britain announced that they would not invest their funds in companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine. The decision made the church the first to do so in the UK. In its announcement, the church drew parallels to similar policies held by the church during Apartheid South Africa.
The Irish Senate passed the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill on 5 December, banning the import and sale of goods originating in West Bank settlements. The bill will have to pass the lower house to be implemented. A lower house vote is expected in early 2019. The Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nashon called the bill the “most extreme anti-Israel piece of boycott legislation in Europe.” In Chile, the country’s congress approved on 29 November a resolution banning products made in West Bank settlements and forcing the government to reexamine all agreements with Israel to ensure that they do not violate the new resolution. In the UK, the Labour Party voted on 25 September at its annual conference to call for an immediate freeze on UK arms sales to Israel. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn also said at the conference that he would recognize a Palestinian state if his party wins the majority in the next British parliamentary elections.
The 7th largest bank in the world, HSBC, confirmed on 23 December that it had decided to divest from the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems after a large-scale campaign including 24.000 emails and picketing in front of 40 branches of HSBC throughout the UK. The campaign started after War on Want released the report “Deadly Investment” in July 2017 and sent a letter in September 2018 to HSBC detailing Elbit’s complicity in deadly violence against Palestinian civilians.
The American singer Lana Del Ray announced on 31 August via tweet that she would not perform at the Meteor Festival from 6 to 8 September in Israel. In her tweet she wrote that she was postponing her appearance “until a time when I can schedule visits for both my Israeli and Palestinian fans.” Del Ray’s decision came after pressure from a joint campaign by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and JVP which gathered 15,000 signatures. Del Ray was the 8th artist to cancel her performance at the Meteor Festival.