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www.jewishnews.co.uk
Jewish News 11 April 2019
News / Airbnb U-turn / Scientist mourned / Interfaith women
Airbnb reverses West Bank ban Airbnb has reversed its decision to remove West Bank settlement listings from its website. The policy change was decided following a court settlement on Monday between the holiday rental company and a dozen American-Jewish plaintiffs who sued the company, organised by Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center, a pro-Israel law organisation. A copy of the settlement obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency says Airbnb will now allow rentals in both Palestinian areas and Israeli settlements of the West Bank. “Airbnb takes no position on the Host-Plaintiffs’ claims, or others’ claims, to legal title to the properties on which the accommodations are located,” the court settlement reads. “All listings for accommodations located in the Affected Region [the West Bank] will at all times be per-
mitted on its platform, subject to applicable laws, rules, and regulations.” Airbnb announced in November that it would remove some 200 rental listings in West Bank settlements, because it contended that the settlements “are at the core of the dispute between
Israelis and Palestinians.” The movement to boycott Israel saw the decision as a victory. But Airbnb never removed the listings. A week after the decision, Shurat Hadin organised the suit on behalf of a dozen AmericanJewish families, most of whom own properties in West Bank settlements. The suit was filed under the Fair Housing Act, which was meant to prevent discrimination against minorities in the United States. As Airbnb is based in the United States, it must adhere to the act in all its rental listings worldwide. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed that Airbnb was discriminating against them for being Jewish, given that it still allowed listings by Palestinian Muslims and Christians in the West Bank.
“The policy Airbnb announced last November was abject discrimination against Jewish users of the website,” Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the president of Shurat Hadin, said in a statement. “Whatever one’s political view, discrimination based on religious affiliation should never be the solution.” In a statement, Airbnb said it does not support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement targeting Israel and will donate any profits from the West Bank to humanitarian groups. It also will apply the same policy to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two disputed territories adjacent to Georgia, and evaluate its listings in other disputed territories. Airbnb has yet to announce where it will donate the profits.
GENIUS BIOLOGIST MOURNED A revolutionary Jewish biologist who won a Nobel Prize for his work at Cambridge University has died aged 92. Born in South Africa in 1927 to a Lithuanian father and a Latvian mother, Sydney Brenner’s beginnings were modest. His father, a cobbler, was illiterate, but at the age of four Brenner taught himself to read from newspapers, which were used instead of tablecloths, “by looking at letters and finding out sounds”.
He later joked he only ended up at medical school aged 15 “to escape” and achieved his degree aged 18, writing his first paper that year. A scholarship to Oxford soon followed, and he went on to make some of the most significant discoveries in the history of biology, transforming the understanding of how life works at the molecular level. Brenner discovered the letters in a DNA sequence that determine which
amino acids ribosomes should use to assemble proteins. He also established the role played by RNA in carrying the “code of life” held in the DNA sequence. Francis Crick and Brenner, who received a Nobel prize in 2002, worked together at Cambridge for 20 years, their work marked by “a series of brilliant, sudden insights”, according to peers.
Sydney Brenner helped decipher the genetic code
Photo by Yakir Zur
Women unite for campaign against racism
Rachel Riley at the Nisa-Nashim conference
Some mostly 250 Jewish and Muslim women at an event featuring Countdown host Rachel Riley and Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick have pledged to stand shoulder to shoulder against racism. The group launched its #ActiveAllies campaign at an annual conference hosted by the Jewish and Muslim women’s network NisaNashim at the University of Westminster on Sunday. Delegates vowed to
encourage and enable Jewish and Muslim women to speak out about hatred against their faith groups and against all other women. Among the pledges was a commitment to urge political parties to review processes for preventing and dealing with Islamophobia and antisemitism. The group held a vigil for the victims of attacks in Christchurch and Pittsburgh, with delegates praying together and per-
forming a song featuring lyrics in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Dick told delegates: “It’s important to celebrate what we have in common... to recognise differences and respect them. “And it’s important to work together for a better future.” Laura Marks and Julie Siddiqi, co-chairs of NisaNashim, said: “The time for talking is over, now it’s time for us to take united action.
BUILDING for 70 years
Gan Yavne, not far from the famous port city of Ashdod, is one of Israel’s fastest growing towns. In order to serve the ever expanding population, Magen David Adom UK is crowdfunding £400,000 to build a new ambulance station. The future of many of Israel’s newest communities depends on investment from organisations such as Magen David Adom. The infrastructure and development is not just material: it is at the heart of the local community.
We are in this together, as Jewish and Muslim sisters, especially when the hatred is