OTTAWA, ON – Amnesty International will be demonstrating outside of TripAdvisor’s offices in Ottawa today to urge the company to stop profiting from war crimes by listing tourist attractions and properties in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Volunteers with the global human rights organization will also construct a barbed-wire beach scene at PARLIAMENT HILL to draw public attention to the issue.
“Israel’s policy of settling Israeli citizens on stolen Palestinian land in occupied territory is a war crime. By promoting tourism in these illegal settlements, TripAdvisor is contributing to the immense suffering of Palestinians who have been uprooted from their land, had their homes destroyed and their resources plundered for settlement use,”said Andrea Marie Portugal, IOPT coordinator, Amnesty International Canada.
Illegal Israeli settlements have had a devastating impact on the human rights of Palestinians, with tens of thousands of homes demolished and large numbers of Palestinians forcibly displaced to make way for their construction, in flagrant violation of international law, since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967.
In January, Amnesty International published Destination: Occupation, an investigation into the way online booking companies are driving tourism to illegal Israeli settlements and contributing to and profiting from their expansion, maintenance, and normalization. It found that TripAdvisor, one of the most visited online tourism websites by foreign visitors to Israel, lists more than 70 different attractions, tours, restaurants, cafes, hotels and rental apartments in settlements across the OPT.
“All companies have a responsibility to respect human rights around the world. War crimes are not a tourist attraction. Amnesty International calls on TripAdvisor to stop listing or promoting properties, activities and attractions located in illegal Israeli settlements or run by settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.,” said Andrea Marie Portugal.
For more information about Amnesty International’s campaign calling on TripAdvisor to stop listing or promoting attractions and properties in illegal settlements in the OPT please click here.
To arrange an interview please contact: Janan Arafa janan.amnesty@gmail.com
Elizabeth Berton-Hunter, Media Relations 416-904-7158 bberton-hunter@amnesty.ca
