Airbnb, Inc. - Military Domain Audit

Target: Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB) Audit Phase: Military - Military Forensics Research Date: 28 June 2026

Direct Defence Contracting & Procurement

No verified contract, tender award, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between Airbnb and the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD), Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Israel Prison Service, Israel Border Police, or other Israeli state security bodies has been identified through searches of the SIBAT directory, IMOD tender records, Israeli Ministry of Defence announcements, or trade press. No public evidence identified.

Airbnb does not appear in the SIBAT - Israel’s Defence Export and Defence Cooperation Directorate - directory, any international defence exhibition catalogue, or Israeli defence procurement registries ¹. Airbnb does not manufacture or export defence equipment and would not ordinarily appear in such directories ¹.

No corporate press releases, government announcements, or trade press reports detailing any defence cooperation, joint venture, or partnership agreement between Airbnb and Israeli defence entities have been identified. No public evidence identified.

Dual-Use Products & Tactical Variants

Airbnb is a hospitality platform-marketplace and does not manufacture, sell, or market ruggedised, tactical, mil-spec, or defence-grade product variants. No public evidence identified of any dual-use or militarised product lines across product documentation, trade press, defence directories, and export databases.

Airbnb does not produce physical products for which a civilian-to-military distinction could meaningfully be drawn. No export licence applications, end-user certificates, or government export control reviews related to Airbnb sales to Israeli defence or security end-users have been identified, and Airbnb’s platform services do not fall within ITAR or EAR licensing categories as arms or dual-use items.

One platform-level finding merits documentation in the adjacent context of military personnel accommodation: a third-party operator identified as “Social Space” listed units at 62 Yarkon Street, Tel Aviv, on the Airbnb platform specifically marketed as accommodation “only for soldiers,” requiring a valid soldier’s certificate for IDF personnel in service and reservists, as documented in January 2026 ². This constitutes a civilian hospitality platform accommodation available to military personnel within Israel proper - not a corporate contract with the IDF and not located in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ². Airbnb’s stated non-discrimination policy prohibits host discrimination based on nationality or religion, and no confirmed Airbnb corporate removal or formal response to these specific listings was documented ².

Heavy Machinery, Construction & Infrastructure

No public evidence identified. Airbnb does not manufacture, sell, or operate heavy machinery, construction equipment, or engineering infrastructure. Airbnb does not appear in UN OHCHR investigations, NGO reports including PAX ³, HRW ⁴, or Al-Haq ⁵, as providing equipment used in settlement construction, the separation barrier, military installations, or demolition activities.

No contract for construction, maintenance, servicing, or expansion of checkpoints, detention facilities, military bases, the separation barrier, or settlement infrastructure has been identified. Airbnb’s inclusion in the OHCHR settlement database relates exclusively to its role as a hospitality listing platform, not to construction or infrastructure provision ⁶⁷.

Supply Chain Integration with Defence Primes

No public evidence identified of any supply relationship - comprising components, sub-systems, raw materials, or manufacturing services - between Airbnb and Israeli defence prime contractors including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, or Israel Military Industries (IMI/Elbit Land). Searches of corporate filings, trade databases, and defence press produced no matching records.

No joint development programmes, co-production agreements, technology transfer arrangements, or licensed manufacturing agreements between Airbnb and Israeli defence firms have been identified. Airbnb’s business model as a peer-to-peer accommodation marketplace has no documented component supply relationships with the Israeli defence industrial base.

Logistical Sustainment & Base Services

No contracts to provide catering, transport, fuel, waste management, facilities maintenance, telecommunications, or other support services to IDF bases, military training facilities, detention centres, or security installations have been identified. No service contracts to military installations in the West Bank, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, or the Negev have been documented. Airbnb is not a shipping, freight, or port services operator, and No public evidence identified in those categories.

An adjacent operational finding, documented by civil society investigation and confirmed by UN OHCHR database inclusion, is that Airbnb’s rental listing platform hosted approximately 350 listings in West Bank settlements as of February 2025 ⁸⁹. Palestinian ID-holders are barred from entering settlements by Israeli military order and would be turned back at military checkpoints or settlement security gates ⁴. The settlements’ maintenance and existence is secured by Israeli military infrastructure, and Airbnb’s OHCHR activity category assignment - (e) “the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport” - reflects this contextual military-adjacent environment ⁷. The documented underlying activity is tourist accommodation listings rather than direct military logistical contracting.

Munitions, Weapons Systems & Strategic Platforms

No public evidence identified. Airbnb is not a defence prime contractor and does not manufacture any weapons platform, munitions, precursor materials, strategic or existential defence systems, or sub-system components for weapons programmes.

Airbnb does not appear on the AFSC “Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide” database, which focuses on weapons manufacturers and high-tech military enablers with documented supply chains to the IDF ¹⁰. Airbnb does not appear in the PAX “Companies Arming Israel and Their Financiers” (June 2024) report, which documents arms suppliers and their financiers ³. Both confirmatory negatives reinforce that Airbnb’s documented activities fall within the civilian hospitality services sector rather than the lethal systems or military-industrial sector.

Export Licensing, Regulatory & Legal History

No government decision to grant, deny, suspend, or revoke export licences for Airbnb products to Israeli military or security end-users has been identified. Airbnb does not export physical defence products, and no investigation, citation, or enforcement action related to arms embargo or export control non-compliance has been documented.

Multiple active and concluded legal proceedings have been documented, predicated on Airbnb’s settlement accommodation listing activity rather than defence contracting ¹¹:

Ireland - Criminal Complaint (GNECB): A criminal complaint was filed in August 2023 by Sadaka and GLAN against Airbnb Ireland and senior executives, alleging complicity in war crimes underlying Israeli settlements and money laundering offences under Irish law ¹²¹³. The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau declined to investigate in November 2024, and a judicial review was filed in May 2025 ¹²¹⁴. The Irish High Court quashed the Garda refusal in October 2025, ordering the Garda to reconsider on correct legal grounds ¹²¹⁵. This constitutes the first court ruling worldwide concluding in favour of complainants in a case of alleged corporate complicity in Israeli settlement crimes, and the first application of proceeds-of-crime law to business activity linked to Israeli settlements ¹².

Ireland - OECD NCP Complaint: GLAN and Al-Haq submitted a complaint to the Irish National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct requesting that Airbnb delist all settlement listings, with status active as of the research date ¹³.

United Kingdom - NCA Complaint: GLAN and Al-Haq lodged a criminal complaint with the UK National Crime Agency alleging money laundering, with status active as of June 2025 ¹⁶¹³.

France - Criminal Complaint (Ligue des droits de l’Homme): A complaint filed in Paris courts on 16 October 2025 alleged “complicity in aggravated concealment of war crimes” through the promotion of settlement accommodation; Airbnb did not respond to AFP at the time of filing ¹⁷¹⁸.

United States - Preservation Letter: GLAN sent a preservation letter to Airbnb’s US parent company regarding documentation relevant to settlement involvement ¹³.

Previous US Litigation (2018–2019): Israeli settler-hosts and guests filed suit in the US following Airbnb’s November 2018 delisting announcement; the litigation was settled in April 2019, under which Airbnb reversed its delisting decision in exchange for donating profits from West Bank bookings to humanitarian organisations ¹⁹.

IPO Disclosure Omission: Amnesty International documented that Airbnb’s S-1 registration statement filed with the SEC ahead of its December 2020 IPO made no mention of its operations in Israeli settlements or the company’s inclusion in the OHCHR settlement database since February 2020, despite this inclusion predating the S-1 filing ²⁰. Settlement operations were omitted from the risk factors section of the S-1 ²⁰. No SEC investigation or enforcement action arising from this omission has been identified.

In its October 2025 response to the Irish High Court ruling, Airbnb stated that it “operates in compliance with applicable laws in Ireland” and has donated all profits from West Bank bookings since 2019 ¹⁵.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Documented Investigations

UN OHCHR Settlement Database: Airbnb was first included in the UN OHCHR database of business enterprises involved in activities in Israeli settlements pursuant to HRC Resolution 31/36 in February 2020 ²⁰. It was retained in the 2023 database update, which contracted the list to 97 companies ²¹. Airbnb is included in the September 2025 update listing 158 business enterprises from 11 countries ²²²³.

Airbnb’s listed activity category is (e): “The provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport” ⁷. The database also includes more severe categories - (a) supplying settlement construction equipment; (b) supplying surveillance equipment; (c) supplying demolition equipment; (d) supplying security services, equipment, and materials - and Airbnb is listed exclusively under the civilian services category (e) ⁷.

UN Special Rapporteur - Albanese A/HRC/59/23 (2 July 2025): The Special Rapporteur’s report names Airbnb in the context of tourism and rental platforms enabling the settlement economy ²⁴²⁵. The report characterises Airbnb’s post-2019 practice of donating West Bank booking profits to humanitarian organisations as “humanitarian-washing,” noting that Airbnb “briefly delisted properties on illegal settlements in 2018 but later reverted to donating profits from such listings to humanitarian causes” ²⁴. Secondary reporting places Airbnb in the tourism and civilian services sections of the report rather than in the military systems, surveillance, or heavy machinery paragraphs ²⁴²⁵.

Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO): Airbnb is named in the DBIO IV company list published November 2024 ²⁶. Airbnb also appears in DBIO V - “The Private Actors Behind the Economy of Occupation and Genocide” (November 2025) - which identifies 104 companies as assisting in maintaining the illegal situation; Airbnb is categorised under hospitality and online marketplace, not military or defence ²⁷.

Who Profits: Airbnb’s Who Profits profile, last validated 5 February 2024, documents listings across 39 West Bank settlements, 6 East Jerusalem settlement neighbourhoods, and 15 Syrian Golan settlements, including named settlements Ariel, Ma’ale Adumim, Efrat, Kiryat Arba, Gilo, Har Homa, Pisgat Ze’ev, and Katzrin ²⁸. Who Profits published two dedicated reports: “Touring Israeli Settlements: Business and Pleasure for the Economy of Occupation” and “Profiting through Dispossession: Another Side of Airbnb’s Complicity,” the latter addressing post-1948 refugee property ²⁸. No military or security connections were documented in the Who Profits profile ²⁸.

AFSC Investigate: Airbnb is profiled by AFSC Investigate with findings limited to settlement listing tourism activities and no military or security connections documented ²⁹. Airbnb does not appear on the separate AFSC “Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide” database, which focuses on weapons manufacturers and military technology suppliers to the IDF ¹⁰.

Human Rights Watch: HRW’s “Bed and Breakfast on Stolen Land” (20 November 2018) documented 139 Airbnb properties in West Bank settlements between March and July 2018, including 10 on land originally seized for military use and subsequently declared state land ⁴. The report noted that 61 properties were mislabelled as being in “Israel” and documented inherently discriminatory rental conditions under which Palestinian ID-holders are barred from settlements by Israeli military order ⁴.

Amnesty International: “Destination: Occupation” (30 January 2019) documented Airbnb among four platforms listing settlement properties and characterised the listings as “profiting from war crimes” ³⁰. Amnesty’s December 2020 press release documented approximately 200 settlement properties on the Airbnb platform and criticised Airbnb’s IPO for omitting settlement operations from risk disclosures, naming Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley as major underwriters ²⁰.

Al-Haq: Al-Haq’s “Touring Stolen Land” investigation documented Airbnb’s facilitation of settlement tourism ⁵. Al-Haq co-filed the multi-jurisdictional legal action press release in June 2025, detailing coordinated complaints filed across Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States ¹⁶.

Center for Constitutional Rights: The Center for Constitutional Rights published “3 Things You Should Know About Airbnb” addressing the company’s settlement listing complicity ³¹.

Guardian Investigation (February 2025): An independent media investigation identified 402 total listings in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem - 350 on Airbnb and 52 on Booking.com - totalling 760 rooms accommodating more than 2,000 persons ³²⁸⁹. The Ligue des droits de l’Homme estimated annual platform revenues from these listings exceed €3 million at a conservative 50% occupancy rate ⁸⁹.

BDS Movement and Municipal Divestment: The BDS Movement declared Airbnb’s 2018 partial delisting “a partial victory for human rights and accountability” while calling for continuation of the campaign until full compliance ³³. More than 140 Palestinian groups called for rejection of Airbnb’s “dirty money” settlement-profit donations following the 2019 reversal ²⁹. The Richmond, California city council voted 5–1 in May 2024 to divest from Airbnb alongside nine other companies - including Caterpillar, Cisco, Dell, Intel, IBM, and Microsoft - citing that “Airbnb hosts a lot of properties that are on illegally occupied land” ³⁴³⁵.

Constructive Notice - Post-ICJ and Post-ICC Developments: The Guardian investigation (February 2025) and the OHCHR database update (September 2025) confirm that Airbnb’s settlement listings remained active after the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, which declared Israeli occupation of the OPT illegal and required third states and companies to provide no assistance, and after the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant issued in November 2024 ²²⁸⁹. No Airbnb public statement specifically addressing the impact of either legal development on its settlement listing policy has been identified.

Corporate Response: Airbnb reversed its November 2018 delisting commitment on 28 June 2019 as part of a settlement of US and Israeli litigation, agreeing to continue listing West Bank properties while donating “any profits generated… by any Airbnb host activity in the entire West Bank” to non-profit organisations dedicated to humanitarian aid ¹⁹. Airbnb’s standing public position is that it “has never boycotted Israel, Israeli businesses, or the more than 20,000 Israeli hosts” ³⁶. A message issued to employees by CFO Dave Stephenson on approximately 12 October 2023 condemned Hamas attacks; no specific policy commitments regarding settlement listings or ongoing military operations were identified in the public-facing version ³⁷.

Controlling Principals: Co-founder Joe Gebbia was appointed by President Trump to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as Chief Design Officer and subsequently named to lead a National Design Studio focused on digitising federal retirement records, as of August 2025 ³⁸³⁹. No documented military, defence, or Israeli defence industry ties have been identified for Gebbia in connection with these roles ³⁸³⁹. Brian Chesky (CEO/Chair) and Nathan Blecharczyk (co-founder, Chief Strategy Officer) have no documented defence-board roles, Israeli defence industry directorships, or IDF-affiliated charitable connections identified in available sources. Board member profiles disclosed in the FY2025 proxy statement show no documented military, defence, or Israeli defence industry affiliations for nominees identified ⁴⁰.

End Notes