INDEX / DIRECTORY / BOOKING.COM

Booking.com

Travel BookingHotels & Accommodation 122 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-08-11
BDS-1000 Score 556 /1000 C Tier C - High

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BDS-1000 Dossier: Booking.com

Key Findings

  • Economic: Booking.com operates a wholly-owned Israeli subsidiary, Booking.com Israel Online Hotel Reservations Ltd., whose staff provide training, promotional advice, and listing verification to West Bank settlement accommodation hosts, and the company lists dozens of properties across West Bank, East Jerusalem, and occupied Golan Heights settlements, with East Jerusalem listings nearly tripling in the year following October 2023.123
  • Political: Booking.com is named in the UN OHCHR settlement-business database and in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s July 2025 “economy of genocide” report, faces an active Dutch criminal complaint alleging money-laundering of settlement-rental proceeds, and its board has characterized the settlement-linked business as “not material” to its operations while declining to disengage.4567
  • Governance friction: Internal employee petitions against settlement listings recurred from 2018 through September 2025, and management removed a 2021 intranet petition post and asked staff to limit related discussion after October 2023.8
  • Not found: No public evidence identified of any Israeli military, defence-contracting, surveillance, or dual-use technology relationship - the company’s documented nexus is confined to settlement tourism-listing revenue and an unrelated civilian AI research office.910

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameBooking.com (Booking.com B.V.), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Booking Holdings Inc.
JurisdictionBooking Holdings Inc. is incorporated in Delaware, USA, and listed on NASDAQ (BKNG); Booking.com B.V. is domiciled in the Netherlands.11
HeadquartersBooking Holdings Inc.: Norwalk, Connecticut, USA. Booking.com B.V.: Amsterdam, Netherlands.11
SectorOnline travel agency / accommodation-booking platform (hospitality and tourism technology).
OwnershipPublicly traded (NASDAQ: BKNG); approximately 92.42% institutional ownership led by Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street under a one-share-one-vote structure; no state or founder golden-share arrangement identified.12
Key Executives / GovernanceGlenn Fogel, Chief Executive Officer. No public evidence identified of other named executives or board members with documented Israel-Palestine-related conduct.8
Israeli-Nexus SummaryA settlement-tourism listings and financial-flows nexus, operated through an Israel-registered subsidiary and unrelated to any military, defence, or surveillance-technology relationship.

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

Booking.com’s documented Israel/Palestine nexus is narrow in kind but persistent and well-evidenced in the economic and political domains, while being effectively absent in the military and digital-technology domains. The company is a demand-side online travel marketplace with no hardware, export, or defence-contracting footprint; multiple independent domain audits - covering direct defence procurement, dual-use products, construction/infrastructure, defence-prime supply chains, base logistics, and munitions/weapons systems - each returned “No public evidence identified” for any Israeli military or security-sector relationship.9 The same holds for surveillance and cybersecurity technology: no Israeli-origin biometric, predictive-policing, or defence-adjacent software vendor relationship was identified, and the company’s only Israel-linked technology unit - a civilian AI research center in Tel Aviv built around the 2017 Evature acquisition - works on consumer-facing recommendation systems, natural-language processing, and computer vision for the booking platform itself.101714

The company’s substantive nexus is instead economic and political: Booking.com lists tourist accommodation in West Bank, East Jerusalem, and occupied Golan Heights settlements, sourced and supported by staff of its Israel-registered subsidiary, who provide training, promotional advice, and listing verification directly to settlement-based hosts.12 Human Rights Watch’s 2018 investigation with Kerem Navot found that of 25 examined properties with determinable land status, 16 sat on Israeli-declared “state land,” 7 on land under pre-1967 Jordanian administration, and 2 on land expropriated for “public use.”9 Listing counts have grown over time - from roughly 19–26 West Bank/East Jerusalem properties in 2018–2022 datasets to figures in the 40s–70s reported by 2024–2025, with East Jerusalem listings reported to have nearly tripled in the year following October 2023 - and the company additionally lists over 150 properties across occupied Syrian Golan settlements.123 This activity has drawn sustained multilateral and civil-society scrutiny: inclusion in the UN OHCHR settlement-business database since 2020, explicit naming in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s July 2025 “economy of occupation to economy of genocide” report, an active Dutch criminal complaint alleging money-laundering of settlement proceeds (filed November 2023, still unresolved as of an April 2026 appellate escalation), and campaigns by Amnesty International, the BDS Movement, and SumOfUs/Eko.45618

What is not supported by the evidence record is any suggestion that Booking.com’s conduct extends beyond monetizing existing settlement accommodation listings. There is no documented role in settlement construction, land seizure, checkpoint or barrier infrastructure, or any transactional link to Israeli military or intelligence bodies. The company disputes the legal characterization of its conduct, stating it “fully complies with the laws of the Dutch and American authorities” and that no applicable law prohibits listing accommodations in Israeli settlements, and its board has told shareholders the settlement-linked business is “not material to the Company’s business.”7 Internal dissent - recurring employee petitions since 2018, intensifying after October 2023 - indicates the issue is contested even within the company, though no public evidence identified shows resulting policy change beyond a 2018 relisting/relabeling adjustment and a 2022 risk-warning label that rights groups characterized as insufficient.19208

This evidentiary pattern - zero military and digital nexus, sustained but non-escalating economic and political engagement via a tourism-listings model, corroborated across UN, NGO, and legal-proceeding sources, with no fabricated or unresolved allegations required to sustain the score - produces a BRS of 556 and a Tier C (High) classification, driven entirely by the Political and Economic domains.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
1996Booking.com founded in Amsterdam.11
March 2014Priceline Group acquires Israeli ad-tech firm Qlika Ltd. for an estimated $15–20 million, its first Israeli office.21
September 2017Booking.com acquires Tel Aviv NLP/chatbot startup Evature.10
October 2017Booking.com announces an AI R&D and innovation center in Tel Aviv.1722
2018Booking.com relabels some West Bank/East Jerusalem listings from “Israel” to “Palestinian Territory, Israeli Settlement”; Israel’s Tourism Minister publicly calls on the CEO to reverse the decision.23
20 November 2018HRW/Kerem Navot publish “Bed and Breakfast on Stolen Land,” documenting 26 Booking.com settlement listings; Airbnb announces it will end settlement rentals, Booking.com does not.924
30 January 2019Amnesty International’s “Destination: Occupation” names Booking.com among tourism firms “driving settlement expansion, profiting from war crimes.”2526
February 2020UN OHCHR publishes its database of businesses linked to Israeli settlements, including Booking.com.4
August 2020University of Manchester divests more than £10 million, including Booking Holdings holdings, citing occupation complicity.2
2021Booking’s compliance function removes an internal employee petition post from the company intranet.8
September–October 2022Booking.com introduces a settlement-listing risk warning, later softened after reported Israeli government pressure; rights groups call it insufficient.192027
October 2023Following the 7 October Hamas attack, Booking.com reports a booking slowdown then recovery; management asks staff to limit non-work-related internal discussion.8
8 November 2023ELSC, Al-Haq, SOMO, and The Rights Forum file a Dutch criminal complaint alleging money-laundering of settlement-rental proceeds.628
May 2024Dutch Public Prosecutor signals intent to investigate the complaint.29
18 December 2024Complainant coalition files additional evidence with the Rotterdam Public Prosecutor.303
January 2025Harvard Management Company discloses a $150 million reinvestment in Booking Holdings, having fully divested in March 2020; reporting links the move to campus divestment advocacy.12
3 July 2025UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report A/HRC/59/23 names Booking.com, citing more-than-doubled West Bank listings since 2018 and tripled East Jerusalem listings since October 2023.315
September 2025Internal employee petition against settlement listings draws over 220 signatures.8
26 September 2025OHCHR database update retains Booking.com among 158 listed companies.416
November 2025”Don’t Buy Into Occupation” inventory, reported via DutchNews, confirms Booking.com remains active in West Bank settlements.32
2026 AGM cycleEko/SumOfUs file a shareholder report citing 41 active settlement properties; Booking Holdings’ board and JLens Network oppose a related shareholder resolution, calling the business “financially insignificant”/“not material.”337
April 2026Complainant coalition escalates the Dutch matter to the Court of Appeal over prosecutorial inaction.15

Corporate Overview

Booking Holdings Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated, NASDAQ-listed (BKNG) holding company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut; its principal operating subsidiary, Booking.com B.V., is domiciled in Amsterdam, Netherlands.11 Booking.com traces to a 1996 Amsterdam travel-technology startup, acquired by Priceline.com (renamed Booking Holdings Inc. in 2018) in 2005.11 No public evidence identified of any Israeli founding origin, headquarters, state ownership stake, or government board appointee.

The company’s sole confirmed Israeli corporate presence is Booking.com Israel Online Hotel Reservations Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary registered with the Israeli Registrar of Companies (No. 514762970) and based in Tel Aviv-Yafo.13 This subsidiary performs two documented functions: operating the company’s AI/machine-learning research center (built around the 2017 acquisition of Evature, later expanded into the Azrieli Sarona tower), and directly engaging settlement-based accommodation hosts to provide training, promotional advice, and listing verification.10142 Booking Holdings management has stated Israel represents approximately 1% of global room nights on a booker-plus-inbound basis. No public evidence identified of any franchise, joint-venture, or licensing relationship with Israeli state bodies, and no evidence identified of the Tel Aviv operation carrying any special “sector anchor” designation from Israeli authorities.

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of any contract, tender, or partnership between Booking.com/Booking Holdings and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, IDF, Israel Prison Service, or Israel Border Police; no dual-use or mil-spec product variants exist, consistent with the company’s status as a consumer booking marketplace with no hardware manufacturing arm; no supply relationship with Elbit Systems, IAI, Rafael, or IMI Systems/Elbit Land; no logistical, catering, transport, or facilities-service contract to IDF bases or detention facilities; and no role in any munitions, weapons-systems, or missile-defence programme.9 The company’s only settlement-adjacent activity documented in this domain is the same listings/booking-intermediary role addressed under Economic and Political - HRW’s 2018 investigation examined the land status of 26 Booking.com-listed properties and separately documented surrounding military closed-zone orders and checkpoints restricting Palestinian landowners, but attributed no construction, engineering, or infrastructure role to Booking.com itself.9

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Every sub-vector checked - direct contracting, dual-use products, construction/infrastructure, defence-prime supply chains, base logistics, and munitions/weapons systems - returned no identified evidence. Geographic proximity between some Golan Heights listings and reported IDF installations does not, on its own, constitute evidence of a service relationship. A distinct legal proceeding exists (the Dutch money-laundering complaint), but it is expressly financial-crime/settlement-nexus in character, not an arms-export or defence-contracting matter.6

Named Entities and Evidence Map

No Israeli defence entities, primes, or security bodies are documented as counterparties to Booking.com. Civil-society scrutiny in this domain runs instead through settlement-listings documentation (HRW/Kerem Navot, Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, Amnesty, the UN OHCHR database, and the Dutch complaint coalition), addressed substantively under Economic and Political.9126

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

Booking.com’s disclosed cloud/infrastructure vendor is Amazon Web Services, covering serverless advertising tooling, CDN migration, and generative-AI workload scaling presented at AWS re:Invent 2023.3435 The company’s Tel Aviv AI center, built from the 2017 Evature acquisition, develops recommendation systems, computer vision, and natural-language understanding applied solely to Booking.com’s own consumer platform.1017

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of any licensing or integration relationship with Israeli-founded cybersecurity/surveillance vendors (Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint, Claroty), of biometric or predictive-policing technology use, of data-hosting infrastructure inside Israel, or of participation in Project Nimbus or any comparable Israeli sovereign-cloud programme. AWS, Booking.com’s cloud vendor, is separately a Project Nimbus contractor to the Israeli government, but no source indicates Booking.com’s own AWS workloads touch Nimbus-designated infrastructure - a vendor-level coincidence, not a documented nexus.3637 No public evidence identified of Booking.com AI systems being trained on surveillance-derived or intercepted data, or of any defence/intelligence technology relationship.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Evature (acquired 2017, Tel Aviv).10 Booking.com Israel Online Hotel Reservations Ltd. is separately documented (per AFSC Investigate) as the entity whose staff communicate directly with settlement accommodation providers - a business-operations fact carried under Economic/Political rather than a digital-technology finding.2 Civil-society and legal scrutiny in this domain tracks the same settlement-listings and Dutch money-laundering complaint documented elsewhere (UN OHCHR database, Albanese report, SOMO/ELSC/Al-Haq/Rights Forum filing), with no digital-technology-specific allegation identified beyond the listings themselves.4316

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

Booking.com’s Israel-facing economic activity consists of accommodation listings sourced directly from property operators - including operators in West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights settlements - onboarded and supported by Israel-based subsidiary staff providing training, promotional advice, and listing verification.2 Who Profits (data current to November 2024) documents 24 listings across 12 West Bank settlements, 7 East Jerusalem listings, and 152 listings across 28 Golan Heights settlements, classifying the company under “Settlement Enterprise/Services to the Settlements.”1 HRW’s 2018 investigation found 16 of 25 determinable-status properties on Israeli-declared “state land,” 2 on expropriated “public use” land, and 2 mislabeled at the time as located “within Israel.”9 SOMO’s December 2024 filing found East Jerusalem listings nearly tripled from 13 to 39 between November 2023 and November 2024.3 The company’s sole confirmed Israeli investment is the Tel Aviv AI center and the 2014 Qlika acquisition; 92.42% of Booking Holdings stock is held by institutional investors (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street) under standard governance, and Harvard Management Company reinvested $150 million in Booking Holdings equity in Q3 2024 after fully divesting in March 2020, with reporting linking the reinvestment explicitly to the 2023 UN settlement-listing context.12

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of Booking.com holding Israeli sovereign bonds or Israel-focused investment fund positions, of any Israeli government “sector anchor” designation for its Tel Aviv operations, or of Israel-specific revenue disclosure beyond the ~1% global-room-nights figure management cited on its Q4 2023 earnings call.38 Booking Holdings does not itself buy or sell rooms and functions, per its own statement to HRW, “only as a booking platform” - an intermediary-model defence distinguishing it from settlement builders, land-registry actors, or goods exporters. The University of Manchester’s 2020 divestment and Norway’s KLP exclusion round demonstrate continued third-party financial consequences, while Harvard’s 2025 reinvestment demonstrates the opposite institutional judgment coexists in the same evidence record.23912

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Booking.com Israel Online Hotel Reservations Ltd. (Israeli Registrar No. 514762970).13 Documentary sources: HRW/Kerem Navot (2018), Amnesty International (2019), Who Profits (2024), AFSC Investigate, SOMO/ELSC/Al-Haq/Rights Forum Dutch complaint (2023–2026), UN OHCHR database, and UN Special Rapporteur Albanese’s 2025 report.925123163

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

Booking.com is named in the UN OHCHR settlement-business database since February 2020, retained in the September 2025 update among 158 listed companies, and explicitly cited in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s July 2025 report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” (A/HRC/59/23) for expanded West Bank and East Jerusalem settlement listings.416315 An active Dutch criminal complaint (filed 8 November 2023 by ELSC, Al-Haq, SOMO, and The Rights Forum) alleges money-laundering of settlement-rental proceeds under Dutch anti-money-laundering law; the Public Prosecutor signalled intent to investigate in May 2024, additional evidence was filed in December 2024, and the coalition escalated to the Court of Appeal in April 2026 over prosecutorial inaction - the matter remains unresolved.6293015 The Booking Holdings board’s FY2026 shareholder-proposal opposition statement, echoed by JLens Network, characterizes the settlement-linked listings as “not material to the Company’s business.”7 Internal employee dissent recurred from 2018 petitions through a September 2025 petition drawing over 220 signatures; the company removed an internal petition post from its intranet in 2021 and asked staff to limit related discussion after October 2023.8

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Booking.com disputes the legal characterization underlying the Dutch complaint, maintaining it “fully complies with the laws of the Dutch and American authorities” and that no applicable law prohibits listing accommodations in Israeli settlements - a position it has reiterated and that remains untested, since the complaint has not resulted in charges as of this writing.6 The board’s “not material” characterization is a documented company position, not an independent financial audit finding, but no public evidence identified contradicts the underlying room-nights disclosure. No public evidence identified of Booking.com using military heritage or defence-sector branding, of a formal “Brand Israel” state marketing partnership, of Israel-specific corporate PAC activity, or of donations to FIDF, JNF/KKL, or settlement-support organizations. The 2018 relisting/relabeling change and 2022 risk-warning label - while criticized by rights groups as insufficient - are documented, non-trivial company responses distinguishing Booking.com’s posture from outright inaction.192023

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Booking Holdings Inc. board and CEO Glenn Fogel (corporate statements); UN OHCHR database and Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese (multilateral scrutiny); ELSC, Al-Haq, SOMO, The Rights Forum (Dutch legal complaint); BDS Movement and SumOfUs/Eko (boycott/divestment campaigns); University of Manchester and Norway’s KLP (documented divestment); Harvard Management Company (documented reinvestment); JLens Network (shareholder-proposal opposition).43167181239

BDS-1000 Score (V4)

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital1.000.500.500.01
Economic7.506.008.006.43
Political8.206.508.007.61

The score is driven almost entirely by Political (V_MAX = 7.61), reflecting high-impact, moderate-to-high-magnitude, high-directness findings: multilateral naming (UN OHCHR database, UN Special Rapporteur report), an unresolved criminal complaint, and documented corporate non-disengagement despite sustained internal and external pressure. Economic contributes a substantial secondary weight (6.43) via the settlement-listings business model and subsidiary-level host support. Military and Digital each score at or near zero, reflecting a comprehensively checked and unsubstantiated absence of any military, defence, or surveillance-technology nexus. Scoring follows the BDS-1000 method: scale-free Impact × Magnitude/Proximity, built exclusively from the evidence compiled in the four domain audits and subjected to human vetting.

Methodology Note

End Notes

Footnotes

  1. https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3768?booking-com= 2 3 4 5 6

  2. https://investigate.afsc.org/company/booking-holdings 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

  3. https://www.somo.nl/additional-evidence-filed-against-booking-com-for-profiting-from-illegal-settlements/ 2 3 4 5

  4. https://www.ohchr.org/en/business/bhr-database 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  5. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session59/advance-version/a-hrc-59-23-aev.pdf 2 3 4

  6. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/netherlands-csos-sue-bookingcom-for-profiting-from-israeli-settlements/ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

  7. https://www.jlensnetwork.org/the-case-to-vote-against-proposal-6-shareholder-resolution-regarding-business-operations-in-israeli-settlements-on-booking-holdings-inc-s-2026-proxy-statement/ 2 3 4 5

  8. https://dutchreview.com/news/amsterdam-based-bookingcom-faces-employee-revolt-over-israeli-settlement-listings/ 2 3 4 5 6 7

  9. https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/11/20/bed-and-breakfast-stolen-land/tourist-rental-listings-west-bank-settlements 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

  10. https://skift.com/2017/09/14/booking-com-buys-evature-for-its-chatbot-talent/ 2 3 4 5 6 7

  11. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1075531/000107553125000010/bkng-20241231.htm 2 3 4 5

  12. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/1/28/HMC-reinvests-booking-holdings/ 2 3 4 5

  13. https://www.northdata.com/Booking%C2%B7COM%20Israel%20Online%20Hotel%20Reservations%20Ltd%C2%B7,%20Tel%20Aviv%20-%20Yafo/ICA-514762970 2 3

  14. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-bookingcom-israel-development-center-moves-to-azrieli-sarona-1001232460 2 3

  15. https://elsc.support/booking-com-war-crimes-complaint/ 2 3

  16. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/26/un-lists-150-firms-tied-to-illegal-israeli-settlements 2 3

  17. https://nocamels.com/2017/10/booking-com-ai-center-israel/ 2 3

  18. https://bdsmovement.net/bookingcom-stop-profiting-war-crimes 2

  19. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/19/booking-com-warn-users-reserving-occupied-west-bank-properties 2 3

  20. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/opt-bookingcom-introduces-warning-of-increased-risk-to-safety-human-rights-for-listings-in-illegal-israeli-settlements-rights-group-says-move-insufficient/ 2 3

  21. https://techcrunch.com/2014/03/11/priceline-buys-israels-qlika-for-15-20m-to-boost-global-expansion-with-rocket-science-powered-ad-tech/

  22. https://www.timesofisrael.com/booking-com-to-open-innovation-center-in-tel-aviv/

  23. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/360075 2

  24. https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/11/20/israel-airbnb-end-settlement-rentals

  25. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/01/israel-opt-tourism-companies-driving-settlement-expansion-profiting-from-war-crimes/ 2

  26. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/destination-occupation-digital-tourism-israel-illegal-settlements/

  27. https://www.timesofisrael.com/booking-com-to-warn-customers-that-staying-in-settlements-may-pose-greater-risks/

  28. https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/23131.html

  29. https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/05/netherlands-prosecutors-to-investigate-criminal-complaint-against-booking-com-over-israel-settlement-listings/ 2

  30. https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/25821.html 2

  31. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they 2 3 4 5

  32. https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/11/booking-com-still-active-in-occupied-west-bank-report/

  33. https://aks3.eko.org/pdf/Eko_Booking.com_report

  34. https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/innovators/booking/

  35. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/aws-reinvent-recap-a-transformative-year-for-travel-and-hospitality/

  36. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus

  37. https://www.972mag.com/cloud-israeli-army-gaza-amazon-google-microsoft/

  38. https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2024/02/22/boo

  39. https://www.timesofisrael.com/norways-largest-pension-fund-divests-from-firms-linked-to-west-bank-settlements/ 2