Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and other major companies appear in a UN database examining business activities connected to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, raising questions about corporate responsibility for human rights.
September 28, 2026—Businesses operating in occupied Palestinian territories are not bound by international law in the same way that UN-member states are, but they are not exempt from upholding human rights either. Hundreds of companies headquartered in 11 countries conduct business in or near Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an update on a database managed by the UN Human Rights Council. That figure is higher today than when the council identified firms doing business in the occupied territory five years ago.e it launched in 2020. The council investigates the effect Israeli settlements have on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people.
The reason it matters is it raises significant questions about the responsibilities of private entities dealing with ethical issues like long-term military occupation of one people by another. While international law related to occupied territory applies to states, not companies, some observers argue that businesses have an ethical responsibility to also comply.
Companies Are Doing Business in Occupied Territory
The vast majority of companies doing business in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 138 of them, are Israeli. At least 20 others are headquartered elsewhere, primarily the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Mexico, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and South Africa.
The updated published list includes 214 companies, some of which are brand names like Motorola Solutions, Fosun International, a privately-controlled Chinese conglomerate, Adama Ltd, Germany’s Heidelberg Materials, and RE/MAX Holdings, a U.S. real estate firm.
Several other companies are travel-related: Airbnb, Expedia, and TripAdvisor. Booking.com is the largest publicly traded company on the list, with a market cap of $131 billion. Its parent company Booking Holdings is also doing business in the occupied territory. Meanwhile, five companies are no longer named having resolved concerns by the Human Rights Counsel. For example, ACS, a Spain-based construction group, is no longer named.
International Law: Obligations of States
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, ruled that Israel’s longstanding presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory with settlements violates international law. Specifically, it is Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 that forbids an occupying power from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
That landmark rule by the ICJ not only called for remediation by Israel; it also prohibited UN-member states from aiding or abetting the settlements. The obligations on businesses are less clear and often debated. Private companies have an obligation under International Humanitarian Law to conduct due diligence on human rights. Beyond that, legal duties in territories where there are illegal settlements are somewhat obscure.
The Limits of International Law
The obstacle for human rights advocates to overcome is that international law applies to state obligations, rather than businesses.
“The challenge lies in the general weakness of international law frameworks regulating business practices. Current international treaties do not impose effective and enforceable legal obligations on private economic actors (“hard law”), even when they participate in gross human rights violations,” writes Franka Weckner, a research assistant at the Institute for Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws and International Business Law of Heidelberg University.
The key for the concept of inclusive capitalism is for companies to see it in their own self interest to include human rights in their corporate accountability platforms. That is where consumers, investors, and workers can make a difference.
Consumers, Workers, and Investors as Power Brokers
We know that for a system of free market capitalism to survive, it must be inclusive and fair enough to maintain legitimacy among societies.. Individuals have economic power, particularly in the way they engage with the economy as consumers, investors, and workers.
We have seen the way climate activists have influenced business. Recall, for example, the way demonstrators prompted the Bank of New York Mellon, an investment firm overseeing trillions of investment dollars, to cut ties with the Adani Group‘s controversial coal project in Australia. Public attention effectively prompted changes in capital allocation.
Perhaps the largest consumer and investor association working for Palestinian rights is the BDS Movement. For 20 years the group has been calling for consumer boycotts, divestment, and sanctions to pressure an end to the Israeli occupation. Today, they are focusing on companies in the tourism field, particularly Airbnb and Booking.com.
One of the most famous companies to get entangled in the difficult ethical questions is Ben & Jerry’s. The company came under fire in 2021 for selling ice cream to illegal settlers in the occupied territory. It resulted in a change of policy and ownership. After years of legal wrangling, Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, resigned from the board in 2025, citing a sudden lack of freedom to pursue values of peace, justice, and human rights for which the company is known. The co-founders continue to advocate for the rights of Palestinians living under military occupation.
