Booking Holdings POLITICAL

Target: Booking Holdings Inc. Research date: 26 October 2026 Scope: Booking Holdings, identifiable subsidiaries, senior executives, corporate political conduct, settlement-related business operations, internal governance, advocacy, financing, technology acquisitions and institutional relationships.

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

Official position on occupied-territory listings

In its April 2026 proxy statement, Booking Holdings acknowledged that accommodation listings in conflict-affected territories raise human-rights and security risks. The company stated that its operating principles include permitting listings unless prohibited by applicable law, supplying relevant information to customers and allowing customers to choose their destinations. The company also described enhanced human-rights due diligence for listings in higher-risk areas. This was its documented corporate position in 2026.¹

In July 2024, Booking.com told ABC News that travellers should decide where they wished to travel and that the platform provided additional information concerning potentially disputed or conflict-affected destinations. This response followed questions about accommodation listings in Israeli settlements. The company did not announce a general withdrawal from settlements in that response.²

In March 2025, Booking.com told Dutch investigative programme Argos that it regarded traveller autonomy as a guiding principle and maintained a consistent global approach to listings in conflict-affected destinations. The company said accommodation would be removed where legally required, including pursuant to sanctions, and stated that it was monitoring developments.³

Comparative public communications

In its 2023 proxy statement, Booking Holdings reported suspending operations in Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and creating a platform through which accommodation partners provided free or discounted temporary shelter to more than 70,000 Ukrainian refugees. The company expressly discussed the war in its shareholder communication.⁴

Booking.com’s corporate societal-impact materials describe a programme launched in March 2022 to facilitate free or substantially discounted accommodation for refugees from Ukraine, including eligible residents holding non-Ukrainian passports. This programme involved the development of a dedicated accommodation product and remained described on the company’s website when reviewed in October 2026.⁵

In a May 2022 company-authored response, Booking Holdings stated that Booking.com had suspended travel services in Russia, including Crimea, and Belarus, enabled free cancellation of Ukraine reservations and waived partner fees for qualifying refugee accommodation. It also described humanitarian donations and engagement with international organisations.⁶

The April 2026 proxy statement addressed Israeli settlement operations principally through its global approach to travel availability, legality, human-rights due diligence and traveller choice. It did not announce a comparable broad suspension of accommodation listings in Israeli settlements.¹

Market framing

Booking Holdings’ FY2025 Form 10-K describes the group as an international provider of online accommodation, travel reservation, restaurant reservation and related services. Its discussion of the business is structured around commercial travel brands, customers, accommodation partners, technology, competition and regulation. The company presents its overarching commercial mission as facilitating travel and related reservations.⁷

The company’s March 2025 response to Argos described its settlement-accommodation policy as part of its worldwide travel-platform approach, with destination information provided to travellers and listings removed when required by applicable law.³

Conflict-specific declarations

No public evidence identified of a formal Booking Holdings corporate declaration endorsing Israeli military operations, Palestinian armed organisations or a particular territorial settlement policy.

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Territorial presence

AFSC Investigate identifies Booking Holdings as the parent of Booking.com and reports that its accommodation platform listed properties in 19 Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and 25 settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as of August 2022. AFSC also identifies Booking.com Israel Online Hotel Reservations Ltd. as an Israeli subsidiary providing accommodation partners with platform support, promotional advice, training and listing assistance. The historical subsidiary relationship and operational description are documented; its precise present-day staffing and contract portfolio require separate verification.⁸

Who Profits identifies Booking.com accommodation listings in named West Bank settlements including Ma’ale Adumim, Neve Daniel, Kfar Adumim, Giva’at Ze’ev, Kalia, Almog and Geva Binyamin. Its investigation also records listings in East Jerusalem settlement neighbourhoods including Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramat Shlomo, together with properties in settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. These observations establish named accommodation-platform activity rather than ownership of the underlying properties by Booking Holdings.⁹

[pre-2020] Human Rights Watch reported in November 2018 that Booking.com facilitated reservations for accommodation in West Bank settlements. In a statement supplied to Human Rights Watch, Booking.com described itself as an online reservation platform through which independent accommodation operators offered rooms to travellers. The company said it permitted accommodation providers in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory to register where consistent with laws applicable to its operations. The reported listing relationship continued to be documented in subsequent investigations.¹⁰

[pre-2020] Amnesty International’s January 2019 Destination: Occupation campaign identified Booking.com among online tourism platforms advertising accommodation in Israeli settlements. Amnesty called for the companies to end settlement-related listings. Continued listings were documented after 2020 by other investigations.¹¹

Recent operating evidence

SOMO reported on 16 January 2025 that evidence submitted to Dutch prosecutors documented an increase in Booking.com accommodation listings in East Jerusalem settlements from 13 on 9 November 2023 to 39 on 9 November 2024. SOMO presented this as evidence supporting its contention that Booking.com had expanded settlement-related commercial activity after the original complaint.¹²

A Guardian investigation published on 27 February 2025 identified 52 Booking.com listings among 402 settlement accommodation listings identified across Booking.com and Airbnb in an August 2024 dataset. The investigation covered occupied West Bank settlements, including East Jerusalem. Its figures differ from other published counts because of their dates, geographical coverage and methodology.¹³

On 14 May 2026, The Guardian reported that accommodation on land formerly farmed by a Palestinian family near Bethlehem was advertised through Booking.com after the land had become part of the Neve Daniel settlement. Its investigation also discussed an Ekō dataset identifying 41 Booking.com listings across 14 settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The article documented the continuing availability of settlement accommodation listings in 2026.¹⁴

In March 2025, Argos reported that Booking.com continued offering dozens of settlement accommodation listings despite repeated internal employee objections. Booking.com confirmed that its policy was to retain listings unless removal was required under applicable law.³

The November 2024 observations, March 2025 employee investigation and May 2026 reporting document settlement-related commercial activity after the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 and after the ICC arrest warrants issued in November 2024.^{12, 14, 3}

United Nations identification

AFSC Investigate records Booking Holdings’ inclusion in the United Nations’ 2020 database of business enterprises associated with specified Israeli settlement activities. The database identification concerns commercial activities connected to settlements and does not itself represent a criminal conviction.⁸

No independently verified updated OHCHR entity-by-entity classification is added beyond the previously documented database identification.

Legal and regulatory scrutiny

On 8 November 2023, SOMO, Al-Haq, the European Legal Support Centre and The Rights Forum filed a criminal complaint with Dutch authorities concerning Booking.com’s revenues from Israeli settlement accommodation. The complaint alleged that proceeds linked to settlement activity were being transferred through the Dutch financial system in violation of applicable criminal law. These allegations remained subject to prosecutorial and judicial processes.¹⁵

On 18 December 2024, the complainant organisations submitted additional evidence to Dutch prosecutors. SOMO publicised the submission in January 2025 and identified continued settlement listings after the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July 2024. This establishes documented post-July 2024 continuation of the underlying commercial activity.¹²

On 8 April 2026, the complainants initiated a Dutch Article 12 procedure challenging the delay in a prosecutorial decision. SOMO described the procedure as requesting that the Court of Appeal determine whether the public prosecutor should proceed. The publication does not establish a criminal conviction or an order requiring prosecution.¹⁶

Civil-society and boycott campaigns

[pre-2020] Amnesty International’s 2019 Destination: Occupation campaign publicly called attention to Booking.com’s settlement listings and sought changes to the operations of major online tourism platforms. The underlying campaign concerned accommodation advertising and the economic relationship between settlement tourism and occupied territory. Subsequent investigations documented continued listings.^{11, 12}

AFSC Investigate records organised university divestment initiatives concerning settlement-linked companies, including a 2020 University of Manchester divestment decision that named Booking.com. AFSC also records student-government divestment resolutions based on the United Nations settlement-company database. These are historically documented civil-society responses rather than evidence of a comprehensive current ban on Booking Holdings investment.⁸

SOMO and its partner organisations continued legal advocacy concerning Booking.com’s settlement business during 2024–2026, including additional evidentiary submissions and proceedings seeking review of prosecutorial inaction.^{12, 16}

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

Human-rights governance

Booking Holdings’ 2026 proxy statement states that human-rights policies and programmes are subject to board-level oversight. The company describes processes for identifying human-rights risks, enhanced due diligence in conflict-affected destinations and possible remediation where its operations cause or contribute to adverse impacts. It also describes the possibility of maintaining listings in jurisdictions where their operation is legally permitted.¹

Shareholder-resolution controversy

In its 2026 proxy statement, Booking Holdings published Proposal 6, submitted by Rewan Al-Haddad of Ekō on behalf of the Lea Langdon Revocable Trust. The proposal requested a report describing the board’s oversight of human-rights risks associated with the company’s activities and relationships involving Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. The proposal referred to the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July 2024.¹

The Booking Holdings board recommended voting against Proposal 6. Its statement said that existing human-rights oversight and reporting processes were sufficient and that producing the requested report would create additional expense and administrative demands. The company maintained that its existing approach was intended to address human-rights risks across global operations.¹

At the annual shareholder meeting on 2 June 2026, Proposal 6 received 64,039,145 votes in favour, 558,090,578 against and 7,840,777 abstentions, with 39,596,274 broker non-votes. The company reported that the proposal was not approved. This shareholder action occurred after both the July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion and November 2024 ICC arrest warrants.¹⁷

Employee petitions concerning settlement accommodation

On 21 March 2025, Dutch investigative programme Argos, produced by HUMAN/VPRO, reported that Booking.com employees had repeatedly organised internal petitions calling for the removal of accommodation listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Argos based its investigation on internal corporate communications and interviews with current and former employees.³

Argos reported that approximately 300 employees signed each of several petitions circulated over preceding years. The employees argued that the continued listings conflicted with international law and Booking.com’s published human-rights commitments.³

One petition questioned how the company’s human-rights policy could remain meaningful if management disregarded recommendations from major human-rights organisations. Argos reported that company moderators removed this petition from Booking.com’s intranet.³

The investigation also documented repeated employee questions during corporate town halls involving CEO Glenn Fogel. These questions concerned the company’s continued commercial relationships with accommodation operators in settlements.³

In the internal communications reported by Argos, Fogel discussed the reputational and commercial consequences experienced by Airbnb following its attempted withdrawal from West Bank settlement accommodation. He acknowledged potential adverse consequences of withdrawal while also stating that those consequences were not the reason for Booking.com’s continued listings.³

Booking.com told Argos that it supported employees’ freedom to express concerns and was proud of its open corporate culture. The company acknowledged removing an internal petition post in 2021 and explained that management wanted to prevent the discussion from becoming divisive and politically charged.³

Booking.com also reiterated that it would continue offering accommodation where permitted by applicable Dutch, European and US law. The company described removal under sanctions or other legal requirements as an exception to its general policy of allowing travellers to decide where to go.³

NL Times separately reported the investigation on 21 March 2025, including the repeated employee petitions, approximately 300 signatures per petition, intranet removal and the company’s stated response.¹⁸

The identified intranet removal occurred in 2021, while the original investigation was published in March 2025. The reporting documents continuing employee objections over several years but does not establish that the specific 2021 removal was repeated after July or November 2024.³

Employee discipline and union activity

No public evidence identified of Booking Holdings or its named subsidiaries dismissing or formally disciplining employees specifically for expressing support for Palestinian civilians or opposing Israeli military policy.

No public evidence identified of litigation against employee unions specifically concerning pro-Palestinian speech.

Platform and editorial policy

In October 2022, Booking.com introduced travel advisories on search results for locations in the West Bank considered potentially conflict-affected. The Foundation for Middle East Peace reported that Israeli government pressure had contributed to a change from stronger proposed terminology and that the resulting warnings appeared on search-result pages rather than individual accommodation listings. The same report stated that the advisories applied to both Israeli settlements and Palestinian localities.¹⁹

Booking Holdings’ 2026 proxy statement confirms its policy of displaying informational banners on search-result pages for numerous conflict-affected or disputed territories. The company presents the banners as a mechanism to help travellers evaluate risks and consult government travel guidance.¹

The March 2025 Argos investigation provides a separately documented example of internal corporate content moderation: Booking.com acknowledged removing a petition-related intranet post in 2021 because management considered the discussion divisive and politically charged.³

No public evidence identified of Booking Holdings deliberately suppressing Palestinian political speech through public-facing recommendation algorithms, search-ranking changes or customer-account moderation.

Retail classification and territorial labelling

Who Profits documents differences in Booking.com’s historical geographical labels for settlement accommodation, including labels referring to Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory and other properties described as located in Israel. These findings concern location categorisation on an accommodation marketplace, not conventional physical-product sourcing labels.⁹

No public evidence identified of a Booking Holdings programme for sourcing physical retail goods from settlements or systematically relabelling settlement-manufactured merchandise.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Brand heritage

Booking Holdings’ FY2025 Form 10-K describes a commercial online travel and reservation business operating through Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, OpenTable and associated services. The filing characterises the group’s commercial activities through travel distribution, technology and related consumer services.⁷

No public evidence identified of the company’s commercial branding relying on Israeli military heritage, intelligence-unit origins, defence contracts or a state-security founding mandate.

Israeli technology acquisitions

[pre-2020] In March 2014, the Priceline Group, subsequently renamed Booking Holdings, acquired Qlika, an Israeli advertising-technology start-up specialising in geographically targeted marketing and advertising optimisation. Agoda’s official corporate history identifies Qlika as an Israeli company acquired by Booking Holdings in 2014 and merged with Agoda. The acquisition is a completed historical transaction, while subsequent corporate biographies establish continuing links to Agoda’s leadership.^{20, 21, 22}

[pre-2020] Agoda’s official biography of Omri Morgenshtern identifies him as a Qlika co-founder and former chief executive. It states that Qlika was acquired by Booking Holdings in 2014. Morgenshtern joined Agoda that year and became its CEO in July 2022. The official biography continued to identify him as Agoda CEO in October 2026.²¹

[pre-2020] Agoda’s official biography of Idan Zalzberg identifies him as a Qlika co-founder and confirms that Booking Holdings acquired the company in 2014. Zalzberg joined Agoda in 2014, subsequently held senior data and technology positions and became its CTO in 2022. The official biography continued to identify him as CTO in October 2026.²²

[pre-2020] In September 2017, Booking.com acquired Evature, an Israeli technology company specialising in natural-language-processing and chatbot applications for travel services. Skift reported the acquisition on 14 September 2017 and attributed confirmation of the transaction to a Booking.com spokesperson. The accessible announcement did not establish a definitive purchase price or the company’s precise standalone legal status after acquisition.²³

[pre-2020] During Booking Holdings’ earnings call on 9 August 2018, Glenn Fogel independently acknowledged the acquisition of Evature from Israel and described the acquired company’s specialisation in natural-language processing. His statements were reproduced in a historical earnings-call transcript. The transaction was completed before 2020; the precise operational status of the original Evature legal entity in October 2026 was not independently established.²⁴

In July 2021, Glenn Fogel publicly discussed Booking’s acquisitions of the Israeli technology companies Evature and Qlika at Calcalist’s E-commerce 360 conference. He identified Evature as a foundation for Booking.com’s Tel Aviv technology operations and expressed continued interest in acquisitions of suitable Israeli technology companies. The published interview rendered Qlika as “Qlicka”, whereas Agoda’s primary corporate history and biographies consistently identify the acquired company’s name as Qlika.^{25, 20, 21, 22}

The two documented acquisitions involved different operating subsidiaries: Qlika was incorporated into Agoda, while Evature was acquired by Booking.com. Their documented commercial specialisations were advertising optimisation and natural-language-processing technology respectively.^{20, 23, 24}

The Priceline Group’s FY2014 Form 10-K discusses the group’s acquisition activity and its financial reporting for that year. The filing does not separately identify Qlika by name in its searchable acquisition discussion, while Agoda’s primary corporate disclosures expressly establish the transaction.^{26, 20}

No public evidence identified of another specifically named Israeli acquisition by Booking Holdings or its subsidiaries beyond Evature and Qlika in the targeted acquisition research.

No public evidence identified establishing that Qlika or Evature was acquired to supply Israeli military equipment, defence technology, battlefield surveillance or settlement infrastructure.

Institutional ties and sponsorships

No public evidence identified of Booking Holdings accepting an Israeli state honour connected to the conflict, sponsoring an Israeli settlement-promotion event or entering a formal non-commercial partnership with the Israeli military.

No public evidence identified of Booking Holdings sponsoring a state-directed public-relations campaign explicitly promoting Israeli settlement expansion.

The Foundation for Middle East Peace reported Israeli governmental objections to Booking.com’s proposed settlement travel warnings in October 2022. The resulting platform warnings were described as a corporate policy dispute involving governmental intervention, rather than a formal partnership or sponsorship agreement.¹⁹

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

Political lobbying

US federal lobbying records compiled by Receipts Report identify Booking Holdings Inc. as a lobbying client with reported activities during 2018–2026. The records identify travel, technology, taxation and related regulatory topics and name outside firms including Hogan Lovells, CGCN Group, The Duberstein Group and Convergence Strategies. The public aggregate does not establish that these expenditures funded lobbying on Israel-Palestine or anti-boycott legislation.²⁷

No public evidence identified of a Booking Holdings lobbying filing specifically advocating recognition of Israeli sovereignty over occupied territory, opposing restrictions on settlement commerce or requesting military assistance to Israel.

No public evidence identified of the company holding a formal institutional leadership role in AIPAC, CFI or a comparable geopolitical lobbying organisation.

Financial contributions

Booking Holdings described corporate humanitarian donations and an employee giving programme associated with the Ukraine crisis in 2022. The company-authored material establishes a mechanism for corporate relief donations and assistance to employees, but does not identify FIDF, JNF/KKL or settlement organisations as recipients.⁶

UJA-Federation of New York’s 2025 Tzedek Society Roll of Honor identifies “Amy and Glenn Fogel” among recognised personal or family donors whose contributions to the organisation’s annual campaign met a threshold of at least $10,000. The campaign period ran from 1 July 2024 through 30 June 2025.²⁸

The donor-recognition disclosure does not identify Booking Holdings as the contributor, disclose the exact contribution amount or identify a restricted purpose or ultimate programme recipient. UJA describes the annual campaign as supporting needs in New York, Israel and elsewhere, but the record does not establish the allocation of the listed couple’s contribution among those activities.²⁸

Booking Holdings’ official leadership record independently identifies Glenn D. Fogel as its Chief Executive Officer and Director. The donor listing uses the matching name “Glenn Fogel” but does not itself provide an employer, occupation or unique identifier establishing that the named donor is the same individual as the executive.^{28, 29}

No public evidence identified establishing that the contribution attributed to Amy and Glenn Fogel was directed specifically to the IDF, FIDF, JNF/KKL, Israeli reservist funds, military-welfare programmes or settlement organisations.

No public evidence identified of a verified direct corporate donation by Booking Holdings or its named subsidiaries to the Israel Defense Forces, Friends of the IDF, JNF/KKL, Regavim, Im Tirtzu, Israeli reservist funds or settlement organisations.

No public evidence identified of a publicly documented Booking Holdings employee-matching payment to those organisations.

Crisis asset mobilisation

During 2022, Booking Holdings mobilised its accommodation marketplace and relationships with hospitality partners to support temporary housing for refugees from Ukraine. Its 2023 proxy reported accommodation assistance for more than 70,000 refugees, while the company described waived partner fees and free or discounted accommodation arrangements.^{4, 6}

No public evidence identified of an equivalent corporate programme providing free accommodation, logistics, computing services or transport specifically to the Israeli military during the Gaza conflict.

No public evidence identified of Booking Holdings supplying military hardware, surveillance products or battlefield infrastructure to Israeli state forces.

Settlement-related commercial revenue

SOMO’s Dutch legal complaint concerns Booking.com’s alleged retention and processing of commercial proceeds associated with settlement accommodation bookings. The complaint addresses ordinary marketplace commercial revenue and alleged money laundering; it does not itself establish direct donations to military or settlement organisations.¹⁵

The company continued to face legal scrutiny over settlement listings in April 2026, when the complainants sought judicial intervention concerning the delayed prosecutorial decision.¹⁶

Technology acquisition financing

[pre-2020] Booking Holdings’ acquisition of Qlika in 2014 and Booking.com’s acquisition of Evature in 2017 were documented corporate technology transactions. The retrieved primary records establish their commercial technology purposes but do not identify the ultimate distribution of acquisition consideration or establish a subsequent payment to an Israeli military or settlement organisation.^{20, 21, 22, 23, 24}

No public evidence identified establishing that Qlika’s advertising-optimisation technology or Evature’s natural-language-processing technology was supplied to the Israeli military through a Booking Holdings contract.

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Legal identity and corporate structure

Booking Holdings Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated, publicly traded US company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. Its FY2025 Form 10-K identifies its principal commercial activities as operating online travel, accommodation, reservation and related platforms. Its major brands include Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable.⁷

The FY2025 Form 10-K describes Booking.com’s business through the provision of accommodation reservations and related services. The group also provides flight, car-rental, attraction, restaurant reservation and travel-related services through its operating brands.⁷

The company’s 2026 proxy identifies Glenn D. Fogel as President and CEO and Robert J. Mylod Jr. as Board Chair. These positions form part of the company’s ordinary listed-company management and governance structure.¹

Booking Holdings’ official leadership page states that Fogel has been CEO and President since January 2017 and CEO of Booking.com since June 2019.²⁹

Foundational mandate

The company’s SEC disclosures describe a commercial travel and technology enterprise pursuing revenue through travel-related transactions, platform services and associated products. They do not describe a foundational corporate mandate to advance Israeli territorial policy, military objectives or geopolitical infrastructure.⁷

No public evidence identified of an Israeli state-held golden share, state-mandated geopolitical mission or founding charter requirement to support Israeli military operations.

Subsidiary attribution

AFSC identifies Booking.com Israel Online Hotel Reservations Ltd. as a Booking.com subsidiary and describes its assistance to accommodation providers, including settlement operators. This is evidence concerning the Booking.com group and its Israeli subsidiary, rather than independent evidence that each Booking Holdings brand maintains its own settlement accommodation inventory.⁸

Agoda’s official corporate history identifies the 2014 Qlika acquisition as a Booking Holdings group transaction and states that Qlika was merged with Agoda. This establishes an Israeli technology-acquisition relationship involving Agoda, separate from the settlement-accommodation activity documented on Booking.com.²⁰

Agoda’s official executive biographies establish that Qlika co-founders Omri Morgenshtern and Idan Zalzberg subsequently entered senior Agoda management and remained identified as CEO and CTO respectively in the corporate materials reviewed in October 2026.^{21, 22}

Booking.com’s 2017 Evature acquisition is separately documented through contemporaneous reporting and a later acknowledgment by Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel. The available evidence associates Evature with Booking.com’s technology activities, whereas Qlika was integrated into Agoda.^{23, 24, 20}

[pre-2020] The Qlika and Evature acquisitions occurred in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Their historical acquisition status is established, but the precise current legal-entity status of both acquired companies and the current use of their original technologies were not independently verified.^{20, 23, 24}

No public evidence identified establishing that Agoda, Priceline, KAYAK or OpenTable independently maintained the specific settlement accommodation listings documented on Booking.com.

No public evidence identified establishing that the Qlika or Evature transactions transferred military or settlement-related contracts to Booking Holdings.

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Principal executives and directors

The 2026 proxy identifies Glenn D. Fogel as CEO and Robert J. Mylod Jr. as Board Chair. Named executive officers include Peter J. Millones, Paulo Pisano and Ewout Steenbergen. The company’s 2026 governance materials also identify directors including Mirian Graddick-Weir, Kelly Grier, Charles Noski, Larry Quinlan, Nicholas Read, Thomas Rothman, Kurt Sievers, Sumit Singh and Vanessa Wittman.^{1, 17}

Booking Holdings’ official leadership biography identifies Fogel as CEO and President since January 2017 and states that he assumed the Booking.com CEO position in June 2019. The biography also records earlier responsibility for worldwide strategy, corporate development and acquisitions.²⁹

Agoda leadership and acquired-company founders

Agoda’s official leadership biography identifies Omri Morgenshtern as its CEO, appointed in July 2022. It states that he co-founded and led Qlika before Booking Holdings acquired the company in 2014. The biography also records his educational background at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University.²¹

Agoda’s official leadership biography identifies Idan Zalzberg as CTO, appointed in 2022, following earlier senior architecture and data-management roles. It identifies him as a Qlika co-founder and records his education at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University.²²

These biographies document continuing senior executive affiliations between Agoda and two founders of the acquired Israeli advertising-technology company. They do not identify political or military advocacy roles for those individuals.^{21, 22}

Public statements

In July 2021, Glenn Fogel publicly described Booking’s acquisitions of Israeli technology firms Evature and Qlika and continued interest in Israeli technology investments. The published report spells the second company “Qlicka”; the primary corporate records establish Qlika as its documented name. The reported remarks concern commercial acquisitions and do not expressly endorse Israeli settlement construction or military operations.^{25, 20, 21, 22}

[pre-2020] During the 9 August 2018 Booking Holdings earnings call, Fogel confirmed the purchase of Evature from Israel and described its expertise in natural-language processing. His statement concerned the group’s commercial development of artificial-intelligence and travel-search capabilities.²⁴

The March 2025 Argos investigation attributes statements to Fogel during internal meetings concerning Booking.com’s settlement-listing policy. In those exchanges, he discussed potential reputational consequences of withdrawing listings and the commercial experience of Airbnb, while maintaining that those consequences were not the company’s reason for retaining accommodation listings.³

Argos also reported that Fogel repeatedly defended the company’s global policy of allowing accommodation listings unless legal restrictions required their removal.³

No public evidence identified of an individual public statement by Fogel or Mylod expressly endorsing Israeli military action in Gaza or advocating annexation of Palestinian territory.

No public evidence identified of a conflict-specific statement by Omri Morgenshtern or Idan Zalzberg supporting Israeli military operations or settlement expansion.

Personal philanthropy and financing

UJA-Federation of New York’s 2025 Tzedek Society Roll of Honor identifies the donor entry “Amy and Glenn Fogel.” The organisation states that recognised donors make personal or family gifts of at least $10,000 to its annual campaign and that the 2025 campaign covers 1 July 2024 through 30 June 2025.²⁸

Booking Holdings independently identifies Glenn D. Fogel as its CEO, confirming the existence and professional identity of a contemporary executive with the matching name. The UJA disclosure does not itself identify the donor’s employer or provide an independent personal identifier connecting its listed Glenn Fogel conclusively to the Booking Holdings executive.^{28, 29}

The UJA record does not specify the exact gift amount, the individual contributor within the couple, any restriction on the donation or the ultimate recipients of the funds. It does not identify a donation to an Israeli military, military-welfare or settlement organisation.²⁸

No public evidence identified establishing that Glenn Fogel, Robert Mylod or the other named senior executives personally donated to FIDF, JNF/KKL, Israeli military-welfare funds or organisations financing settlement expansion.

No public evidence identified of an independently verified foundation grant, fundraising event or personal sponsorship by these principals specifically benefiting Israeli military units.

No public evidence identified of a personal military or settlement-related donation by Agoda executives Omri Morgenshtern or Idan Zalzberg.

Board memberships and affiliations

No public evidence identified of a current Booking Holdings director serving in an official leadership role in AIPAC, CFI, Regavim, Im Tirtzu or a settlement-development organisation.

No public evidence identified of a directorship held by a named Booking Holdings executive in an Israeli defence manufacturer that establishes a corporate military-supply relationship.

No public evidence identified establishing that Qlika’s founders subsequently held leadership positions in Israeli military-welfare or settlement organisations.

Executive-level corporate decisions

The Booking Holdings board’s documented opposition to the settlement-related shareholder proposal in April–June 2026 constitutes a collective corporate governance position concerning continued oversight and disclosure of risks associated with settlement-linked business operations. The board’s recommendation and the failed shareholder vote are established by the company’s SEC filings.^{1, 17}

The March 2025 Argos investigation also documents executive-level awareness of employee objections to settlement accommodation listings. Employees repeatedly raised concerns during town halls involving Fogel, and the company maintained its existing global accommodation-listing policy in response.³

The combination of the 2025 employee investigation and the 2026 shareholder proposal documents continuing internal and shareholder engagement with settlement-related corporate conduct after the ICJ advisory opinion of July 2024 and the ICC arrest warrants of November 2024.^{1, 17, 3}