The Dutch Public Prosecutor (OM) announced Thursday that it intends to investigate the criminal complaint filed by a group of human rights organizations against Booking.com, an online rental platform for holiday accommodations, regarding their alleged listing of rental properties in Israeli settlements. The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), the Rights Forum, and the Palestinian civil society Al-Hag launched the complaint in November 2023 but only made it public recently.
According to the NGOs, “by facilitating the rental of vacation homes on land stolen from the indigenous Palestinian population, Booking.com profits from war crimes.” The case is being brought under anti-money laundering legislation and Article 1(4) of the Dutch International Crimes Act (Wet Internationale Misdrijven) which specifically forbids profiting from war crimes. The group asserted that the “profits of crime” made by Booking.com enter the Dutch financial system and that this thereby constitutes money laundering.
Investigations conducted between July 2022 and 2023 by human rights organizations identified 70 listings — 13 in East Jerusalem and 57 in other areas of the West Bank — on Booking.com. The NGOs additionally stated that these listings could be characterized as “deceptive practices disregarding international law,” resulting in profits from human rights violations and contributing to the maintenance of illegal settlements.
The Israeli settlements have been acknowledged as illegal by the International Court of Justice and the Dutch Government. Furthermore, Booking.com was blacklisted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2020 in the database of businesses facilitating Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was created in 2016. Additionally, Human Rights Watch had already raised concerns over travel companies such as Airbnb and Booking.com in 2018, alleging they facilitated the existence of these settlements.
At present, prosecutors are studying the complaint, but have been unable to provide the public with an exact timeline regarding further steps.
