On
November 19, 2018, Airbnb, Inc. (a widely popular online hospitality service) announced:
…we concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.
In short, Israeli Jews living in Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”)
may no longer rent
out their homes and apartments via the Airbnb platform. Muslims,
Christians and citizens of the Palestinian Authority are free to
continue doing so: the boycott targets only Jews.
At present, Airbnb does not boycott any other country nor target any other dispute.
The announcement led to spirited discussion about whether the
decision is discriminatory or even antisemitic. Yet Western media
coverage has neglected one critical fact: it’s also illegal.
The United States Constitution (lol), as well as numerous acts of Congress
and various state laws, prohibit American individuals and corporations
from participating in boycotts against foreign countries. In short, a
private boycott against a foreign government is not “free speech” like
the domestic boycotts of the Civil Rights Movement, but rather a tool of
statecraft that, like war, is reserved to the Federal government
alone. I previously
explored this issue in depth.
