Booking.com has been named as a company profiting from the illegal settlement economy [Getty]
A Palestinian family from the occupied West Bank says travel giant Booking.com is profiting from land confiscated from them by Israeli settlers, according to a new report by corporate accountability group Eko.
The report, released ahead of Booking Holdings’ annual general meeting on 2 June, alleges that the travel platform lists 41 active properties across 14 illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, generating revenue for both the company and the settlement economy.
According to Eko, researchers used geographic analysis tools and archived land records from the Palestinian town of al-Khader near Bethlehem to trace one property listed on Booking.com in the Israeli settlement of Neve Daniel to land registered to the Palestinian Sbeih family.
The property is marketed to tourists under the name “Mountain View”.
Eko said Mohammed Sbeih, the grandson of the original registered landowners, has been unable to access the land for years after it was confiscated.
“The issue is not the money they are making. It does not matter whether it is ten shekels or five hundred thousand dollars. The issue is that this property is built on stolen land,” Sbeih said in comments published by Eko.
“This is my grandfather’s land. I worked on it, my father worked on it and my grandfather worked on it with sweat and blood. I want Booking.com off my land.”
The report said properties listed on the platform ranged from low-cost rooms to luxury villas allegedly rented out for more than $7,000 per night.
It also accused Booking.com of marketing settlement properties as luxury tourist destinations without disclosing that they were built on occupied land confiscated from Palestinians.
Eko further linked the listings to growing settler violence against nearby Palestinian communities.
Citing data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the report said settlers carried out 1,828 attacks against Palestinians during 2025, averaging around five attacks per day.
The report referenced a March 2026 attack on the Palestinian village of Khirbet Humsa, located near the settlement of Hamdat, where Eko said Booking.com continued to advertise accommodation.
“Our livestock is stolen, children are targeted and our families are attacked at night,” Qusai Abu al-Kabash, a resident quoted in the report, said.
“We want Booking.com to stop allowing tourists from around the world to spend their holidays in these settlements.”
The report also highlighted mounting legal and financial pressure on Booking.com over its operations in Israeli settlements.
Eko noted that Booking.com had previously been included in a UN Human Rights Council database of companies linked to the settlement economy, while several Dutch pension funds have reportedly divested from the company.
The group also pointed to a criminal complaint filed in the Netherlands in 2023 accusing Booking.com of money laundering linked to revenues generated from settlement properties.
In May, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands was preparing measures to ban trade with Israeli settlements.
Eko said a shareholder resolution submitted ahead of Booking Holdings’ annual meeting called on the company to provide greater transparency regarding how it identifies and addresses human rights risks connected to operations in conflict zones.
The company’s board has reportedly urged shareholders to reject the proposal, describing the settlement-related business as “financially insignificant” and dismissing the allegations against the company as “broad and unsubstantiated”.
Booking.com has not publicly responded to the latest report.
