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Does Booking Holdings Inc. support Israel?

Support documentedupdated 2022-09-30

Yes — Booking Holdings Inc. has documented support for Israel on record. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Hotels & travel companies · Tech companies · Companies that support Israel

Background

Booking Holdings' record is about platform operations, not donations: no record was found of the corporation donating to the Israeli state, military or settlement organizations. The controversy centers on Booking.com's listing of accommodations in Israeli settlements — documented by Amnesty International (2019) and the UN Human Rights Office database (2020, retained through the 2025 update) — and on its 2022 retreat, under Israeli government pressure, from a planned "safety and human rights" warning for those listings. The company argues it lets travelers decide where to stay and lists any property complying with applicable local law. More than 220 Booking.com employees had signed petitions by 2025 urging the company to stop profiting from settlement rentals, and the BDS movement designates Booking.com an organic pressure target rather than a consumer-boycott priority.

NL Times Al Jazeera Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Timeline of documented support

201920202021202220232019-01 — Operations in Israel: Accommodation providers in Israeli settlements (occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem)Operations in Israel2019-012020-02 — Operations in Israel: UN OHCHR database of businesses involved in Israeli settlementsOperations in Israel2020-022021 — Operations in Israel: Booking.com Machine Learning Centre, Tel AvivOperations in Israel20212022-09 — Public statement: Users viewing West Bank settlement listingsPublic statement2022-09

Documented support

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel2019-01-30—Accommodation providers in Israeli settlements (occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem)
Amnesty International's "Destination: Occupation" report documented that Booking.com, the group's Netherlands-based subsidiary, listed 45 hotels and rentals in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, taking commissions on bookings. The platform, not the parent corporation, hosts the listings; property owners are settler businesses.
Operations in Israel2020-02-12—UN OHCHR database of businesses involved in Israeli settlements
Both Booking Holdings (United States) and its subsidiary Booking.com B.V. (Netherlands) are listed on the UN Human Rights Office database of business enterprises involved in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, under activity (e): provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements. Both entities were listed in the original February 2020 database and remained on the June 2023 and 26 September 2025 updates (158 companies).
Public statement2022-09-30—Users viewing West Bank settlement listings
In September 2022 Booking.com planned to label settlement listings as located in occupied territory with a warning of "an increased risk to safety and human rights." After what Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called "discrete and effective dialogue" by Israel's foreign and tourism ministries, the company dropped the word "occupied" and the human-rights language on 30 September 2022, replacing it with a milder advisory calling the area "conflict-affected" and applying it to Palestinian-owned properties as well.
Operations in Israel2021—Booking.com Machine Learning Centre, Tel Aviv
Booking.com opened a Tel Aviv office in 2021 that houses its Machine Learning Centre and engineering teams (about 70 employees), working on recommendation systems, computer vision and natural-language understanding. Its Israeli subsidiary also supports accommodation providers across Israel, and Dutch press reported its support staff work with providers including those in settlements.

Frequently asked questions

Did Booking Holdings Inc. donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of cash donations, but Booking Holdings Inc. has documented support of other kinds (Operations in Israel, Public statement). See the records on this page.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 13 distinct sources are cited for Booking Holdings Inc.. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2022-09-30

Companies with documented support