KFAR ADUMIM, West Bank: Israel is threatening vacation rental company Airbnb with high taxes and legal repercussions over its decision to remove listings from Jewish West Bank settlements.
The threats step up Israel’s fight against a global movement advocating for boycotts over the country’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said Tuesday that Israel will seek to impose “very high taxes” on the company in order to restrict its operations in the country. He also says Israel will encourage hosts in settlements to sue the company to make it “pay” for its decision.
Airbnb’s decision on Monday sparked outrage among Israeli officials and settler leaders, but was welcomed by Palestinian officials and human rights groups that had long pressured the company to end its contentious West Bank settlement listings.
Israel steps up boycott fight after Airbnb settlement ban
Israel steps up boycott fight after Airbnb settlement ban
- Israel will encourage hosts in settlements to sue the company to make it ‘pay’ for its decision
- Airbnb’s decision on Monday sparked outrage among Israeli officials and settler leaders
Israeli president tells Bild: War with Iran needs ‘end result’, not exact timetable
- Herzog said the US and Israeli attacks on Iran were changing the whole configuration of the Middle East
- He defended strikes on Iranian oil sites as a way of taking away money from Tehran’s “war machine“
JERUSALEM: Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday did not offer a timetable on when the war with Iran could end, telling Germany’s Bild newspaper: “We need to take a deep breath and get to the end result.”
Herzog said the US and Israeli attacks on Iran were changing the whole configuration of the Middle East. He defended strikes on Iranian oil sites as a way of taking away money from Tehran’s “war machine.”
The interview was published as the US and Israel pounded Iran with what the Pentagon and Iranians on the ground said were the most intense airstrikes of the war, despite global markets betting that President Donald Trump will seek to end the conflict soon.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, had earlier said his country was not planning for an endless war and was consulting with Washington about when to stop it.
“The Iranians are the ones spreading chaos and terror throughout the region and the world. So I think if we measure everything by a speedometer, we won’t get anywhere. We need to take a deep breath and get to the end result,” Herzog told Bild.
Eliminating the Iranian threat would “enable the entire system in the region to suddenly breathe again and develop further. That’s fantastic,” he added.
