This Tuesday, the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 demanded that seven tourist intermediation platforms withdraw advertisements for holiday accommodation located in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. The measure comes after an investigation that has identified 138 advertising offers considered illegal in Spain. According to the department headed by Pablo Bustinduy, the ads correspond to accommodation located in more than 200 postal codes of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The ministry has not made public the names of the multinational companies involved.
Consumption has sent a first request to the platforms to inform them of the illicit content and demand its immediate removal or blocking in Spain. In the event of non-compliance, the ministry warns, “subsequent actions” could be taken. The measure occurs one day after the Treasury published in the Official State Gazette the corresponding to these settlements, considered illegal according to international law.
The ministry emphasizes that this type of accommodation “contributes to the normalization and perpetuation of a colonial regime considered illegal.” In this sense, they recall an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of July 2024, which urged States to “take measures to prevent trade or investment relations that contribute to the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
The action is part of the , which establishes and supports the Palestinian population.” This regulation declares advertising illegal in Spain, both for products originating from illegal Israeli settlements and for the services provided in them.
The pressure on the tourism sector is not new. In October, the CC OO travel agency subsector urged them to cease or progressively reduce their collaboration with four large transnational companies (Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and Tripadvisor) that, according to their complaints, market accommodation in the occupied territories, presenting them as if they were located in Israel.
The department headed by Bustinduy highlights that organizations such as Amnesty International and other NGOs have publicly denounced various platforms for offering this type of accommodation. It also points out that the association Jurists for Respect for International Law, which is based in France and was created with the objective of “promoting the application of international law in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” filed a lawsuit with the French courts against “a famous tourist rental intermediation service” (Airbnb, as it turned out at the time) for listing properties in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The and entrusted to the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs, which analyzed whether there were companies marketing and advertising in Spain goods or services from occupied Palestinian territories, benefiting from the occupation situation. This work was supported, among other sources, by the report published in July by the UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, which pointed out several companies for obtaining economic benefits from the occupation and denounced the existence of more than 371 illegal colonies and settlements built with machinery from international companies, also used to demolish Palestinian homes.
Furthermore, also in September, in which it identified 158 companies with “concerning human rights” activities in the territories occupied by Israel in the West Bank, of which 138 were Israeli companies and 20 were foreign, spread across ten countries. Among the companies highlighted were the large global tourism platforms Airbnb and Booking.
