Short answer: As of July 2026, Airbnb operates commercially in Israel, with listings in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and other cities, and it has publicly stated that it does not support the BDS movement or any boycott of Israel. The fuller picture is genuinely mixed rather than simply supportive. In November 2018 the company announced it would remove roughly 200 listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, then reversed that decision in April 2019 after lawsuits were settled, keeping the listings and pledging to donate any profits from disputed regions to humanitarian nonprofits. That back-and-forth is why you will see Airbnb on conflicting boycott lists, and why claims in either direction (that it "boycotts Israel" or that it fully "supports Israel") are both oversimplified.
What the record actually shows
Airbnb is a US-based lodging marketplace with an ordinary commercial presence in Israel. Travelers can book stays in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and elsewhere, and the company has never withdrawn from the Israeli market. The controversy is narrower than the boycott graphics suggest, and it centers on the West Bank. Here is the documented record, in order.
- November 19, 2018: Airbnb announced it would remove about 200 listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying it would delist properties in areas "at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians." The decision excluded East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. (The Times of Israel)
- November 19, 2018: In its official statement, Airbnb declared that it "does not support the BDS movement, any boycott of Israel, or any boycott of Israeli companies," framing the settlement decision as narrow rather than a boycott of the country. (Airbnb Newsroom)
- November 21, 2018: Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan called the settlement delisting "discriminatory and racist" and urged supporters of Israel to boycott Airbnb, while pressing US states with anti-BDS laws to act against the company. (Al Jazeera, Fox News)
- April 9, 2019: Airbnb reversed its plan and kept the West Bank settlement listings, resolving lawsuits from Israeli-American settlement homeowners in US federal courts and the Jerusalem District Court. The company pledged to donate any profits from listings in disputed regions to humanitarian nonprofits. (NPR)
- May 14, 2019: Palestinian campaigners and BDS-aligned groups called for a mass boycott of Airbnb over its decision to keep the settlement listings, so the company drew boycott pressure from the opposite side as well. (Al Jazeera)
- December 1, 2020: Amnesty International published a report criticizing Airbnb for continuing to list properties in West Bank settlements, confirming that the listings remained active after the 2019 reversal. (Amnesty International)
Where the boycott talk comes from
Airbnb does appear on some pro-Palestinian and BDS-style boycott lists. The reason is not that it boycotts Israel or refuses to do business there. It is that Airbnb lists properties in West Bank settlements, which those campaigns object to. So the viral version of the story gets it wrong in both directions.
The detail most boycott graphics leave out is that one of the loudest calls to drop Airbnb in 2018 did not come from BDS at all. It came from Israel's own government, when Minister Gilad Erdan urged pro-Israel travelers to boycott the platform after it moved to delist settlement rentals. Then the pressure flipped. Once Airbnb reversed course in 2019 and kept those listings, pro-Palestinian groups called for a boycott because the listings stayed up. The company managed to anger campaigners on both sides of the same issue within a few months. If you see "Airbnb" on a boycott image, it is worth knowing which list it is and why, because the two lists exist for opposite reasons.
The bottom line
Airbnb operates normally in Israel and says it does not support BDS or any boycott of Israel, so claims that it "boycotts Israel" are false. But it is not a pro-Israel activist company either. It briefly moved to delist West Bank settlement rentals in 2018, then reversed and kept them in 2019 after settling lawsuits. It draws boycott pressure from both sides, and its presence on BDS lists stems from the settlement listings, not from any withdrawal from the Israeli market. For a pro-Israel shopper, the fair summary is that Airbnb is a commercial presence in Israel that rejects BDS, not a company campaigning on Israel's behalf.
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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
