Three pro-Palestinian groups have filed a lawsuit against Spanish online travel company eDreams Odigeo, accusing it of profiting from tourism in areas considered to be illegally occupied by Israel under international law.
Spanish groups Novact, Suds and Comite de Solidaridad Contra la Causa Arabe allege that eDreams engaged in money laundering under Spanish law by financially benefiting from listings and bookings in illegal settlements through its commercial agreements with Dutch online travel agency Booking.com and Travelscape, a subsidiary of US online travel platform Expedia.
In response, eDreams Odigeo disputed the claims and said they were based on websites that it does not own. “Our firm and consistent policy is to not list properties in Israeli settlements, and our current proprietary platforms strictly enforce this,” a representative said.
The lawsuit says that eDreams has relied on hotel inventories supplied by these companies, including properties in illegal settlements, since 2022. The company, which does not enter into agreements with property owners directly, also stands accused of monetising the listings and integrating the resulting commissions into its regular business income.
In Spain, money laundering involves concealing the illicit origin of funds or reintegrating them into the legal economy.
The accommodation was presented as legally in Israel, said Spanish lawyer Saul Castro from rights group Centro Guernica 37, who worked on the case. “If corporations do not see that their actions may amount to criminal prosecution and may be deemed crimes, they will not stop carrying out business in the occupied territories,” he told The National.
A similar case filed last summer was reportedly dismissed by the Madrid prosecutor's office under the grounds that Spain did not ban trade with the Occupied Palestinian territories.
De facto annexation
The lawsuit comes amid increased attention on Israel's activities in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians living in the area, which is supposed to be part of a future Palestinian state, are the target of increasing violence from Israeli settlers who regularly attack their olive trees and vandalise property.
The Israeli government recently implemented measures to officially open land registration as state land in a move described by many as de facto annexation. It argues the territory is not occupied in legal terms because the land is disputed.
Centro Guernica 37 and Somo, the Amsterdam-based Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, claimed that they had completed seven test bookings in Spain between October 2024 and July last year on two eDreams websites. They said website hotels.edreams.com went offline in September but accomodation.edreams.es is still active.
“The complaint argues that income generated from settlement tourism, including platform commissions, booking fees and referral revenues, must be treated as proceeds of war crimes,” the statement said.
The eDreams representative said that “the URL referenced in recent reports” was a legacy page “owned and hosted by a third party”. They said the company offers accommodation through a different link, edreams.es/hoteles. “Consequently, it is impossible for any customer navigating our official platforms to encounter these legacy listings through search or navigation. We are reaching out to the relevant parties to clarify the situation,” they said.
In September, seven companies, including eDreams Odigeo, were taken off a UN list of companies operating in Israeli West Bank settlements. Israel says the list unfairly vilifies companies working legally.
Travel agencies with offices in Europe, including Booking.com as well as Airbnb, have increasingly become the target of lawsuits by rights groups since an advisory opinion issued in July 2024 by the International Court of Justice stated the illegality of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
It says that states are “under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Technical issues
The advisory opinion's vague wording has left ample room for interpretation, with many states ignoring it completely.
Spain is viewed as one of Europe's most pro-Palestinian countries. In September, it passed a law banning the advertisement of services in the occupied territories as well as a ban on imported goods. The law fell short of banning services altogether.
Slovenia has also banned imported goods from settlements. The Netherlands, Ireland, and Belgium are working on adopting similar legislation.
The National has reached out to Booking.com and Expedia for comment.
In past contacts with Somo, eDreams has said it “is not the intention of eDreams to generate business or revenue from accommodations located in the occupied Palestinian territories or the occupied Syrian Golan”. It said that 35 listings found by Somo in September last year on accommodation.edreams.es were “isolated technical discrepancies” and that they were carrying out an internal investigation.
Last month, Booking.com told Somo that its contract with eDreams had ended in September. Somo has also filed a criminal complaint against Booking.com in the Netherlands, which is continuing. Somo said that in the past, Booking.com has maintained that it does not breach international law.
In France, a lawsuit against Airbnb and Booking.com was filed in October by the Human Rights League. It accused the companies of complicity in Israeli war crimes committed in the occupied territories and concealment of those crimes by generating revenues from holiday destinations. The league is waiting for judicial authorities to designate a judge for the case, lawyer Patrick Baudouin told The National.
