March 11–Among the rapidly growing family of on-demand startups, I always thought Airbnb was the smart one.
If Uber was the obnoxious, impulsive brother, then Airbnb was the more thoughtful, emotionally astute sibling, more likely to offer you a warm hug than a violent chest bump.
But recent events tell us that Airbnb's benign image masks a detached, tone-deaf corporation whose incompetence in public stagecraft risks undermining its $25 billion valuation.
First, there was the disastrous advertising campaign last fall that seemed to lecture San Francisco on how to spend the tax revenue the company helpfully generates.
And now this: Airbnb has been listing homes in illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank. It doesn't take a Kissinger to figure out that Airbnb just waded into one of the most explosive foreign policy issues of our time.
Since Airbnb does not actually own any of the homes it lists, the company conveniently tends to wash its hands of controversy, claiming that it is simply a platform for other peoples' business. In this particular case, we're not talking about a renter who trashed someone's home, but rather an epic conflict that impacts much of the world.
"We care deeply about the feedback we receive from our community and we take these issues incredibly seriously," Airbnb said in an email. "This particular issue is complex: people have been debating this matter for 5,000 years, so a hospitality company from San Francisco isn't going to have all the answers but at the end of the day, we want to help open the world, not close it off."
In 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the independent Jewish state of Israel in land also known as Palestine. The new nation successfully fought off invasions from neighboring Arab countries, most notably in the 1967 Six Day War. In that conflict, Israel captured the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Over the years, Israel has been building settlements in the West Bank, defying U.N. resolutions that state such activity is illegal because international law considers the territory occupied land.
Companies like European banking group Dexia and U.S. real estate firm ReMax have run into trouble because they were conducting business with the settlements.
"I strongly encourage all business to exercise due diligence to ensure they do not contribute to human rights violations and abuse, and in order to avoid responsibility for complicity in breaches of international law," U.N. special investigator Richard Falk wrote in a 2013 report on foreign companies operating in the occupied territories.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, the nation's most prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, did not respond to a request for comment.
"The Palestinians should stop whining and take their fate in their own hands and stop blaming Israel for their incapacity to build their own economy," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon previously told the Associated Press.
In September, SodaStream withdrew from a factory it had built in a West Bank settlement. Unlike SodaStream, however, Airbnb does not actually employ or own anything in the settlements.
But the company's operations carry more emotional weight than other businesses.
Perhaps nothing is more personal than someone's home. So by helping to rent out illegal houses in the West Bank, Airbnb is granting de facto recognition to the settlers' claim to the land.
"Airbnb has to stop enabling Israeli violations of international law," said Stephanie Fox, deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, a nonprofit in Oakland. "Whether Airbnb has a physical presence or not in the West Bank, they are still profiting off it. It's absolutely dirty money."
People can, of course, disagree on whether the occupied territories truly belong to Israel or the Palestinians. But today, under international law, the structures Airbnb is helping to rent do not belong there.
Airbnb should know this. And that's the inherent problem with "platform" companies like Uber and Airbnb. Since the companies don't directly employ drivers or homeowners, don't directly own cars or houses, they have nothing at stake in the messy real world.
That kind of dissonance can lead to a detachment that, whether by design or accidental ignorance, results in unforced errors like renting out rooms in West Bank settlements.
Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee
