Genocide Fitoor and the World Tourism Organization are part of the aggression against Palestine – El Salto

Tourism is also a recreational and economic activity. It allows you to know and enjoy landscapes, nature and urban environments different from your own; Share the way of life and customs of other places. And the result is that it moves a lot of money and promotes, if things are generally done well, income flows that benefit the economy and local residents of the visited areas.

Sustainable and prosperous tourism for all is the objective of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a United Nations agency whose status is reminiscent of the Madrid-based private sector with which it was created.

But what if tourism is promoted at the expense of others? And what if it is done with the resources of others, taking what is ours and giving it to others? When some people justify or try to distort the origins of another’s culture, cuisine or clothing?

Well, this is what happens with the occupation and colonization of Palestinians by the State of Israel.

If Jerusalem and Bethlehem are occupied cities, travel agencies, pilgrims should study how to support the Palestinian economy, hospitality, transportation, services

The theft of water, aggregates and land by Israel is known data. Also, the Israeli policy of distribution of public expenditure from settlements or nature reserves, urban planning and infrastructure, the establishment of roads, railways or trams and public transport, water, electricity, sanitation, health or education, or own food for consumption. , generate an economic trap that stifles and excludes Palestinian economic development. If we add to this that the entire Palestinian economy is jiberized and dependent on the occupying power, including import and export, production and distribution of what they produce and they have to depend on the monopoly of Israeli products in that area. If we barely control tourism, we would understand that tourist agents may be part of the problem of colonization.

Thus, if Jerusalem and Bethlehem are occupied cities, travel agencies and pilgrims should study how to support the Palestinian economy, hospitality, transportation, and services. Stay in their hotels, boost the local economy, review civil liability and accident insurance benefits ranging from craft provenance to nourishing the Palestinian economy.

In contrast, travel agencies and many religious orders tend toward easier and more institutional and private channels of wielding power. We should not forget that the private sector largely shapes and benefits from business policies.

Palestine

Israeli settlements, resort towns

Tourism in the illegal settlements of the West Bank, promoted by the Israeli government and companies such as Airbnb, Booking, TripAdvisor, and Expedia, perpetuates the expansion of settlements and contributes to the normalization of the occupation in Palestine.

The World Tourism Organization has a body to ensure the ethics and sustainability of tourism and respect for the Code of Conduct. Russia was expelled from UNWTO a few months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Israel, no. And it has occupied a part of Syria and the rest of historic Palestine for decades. Double scale.

FITUR, the Madrid tourism fair, allows an occupying state like Israel, which shamelessly advertises in its propaganda against international law, to have all of historic Palestine as part of its territory, including Greater Israel, the Syrian Golan Heights Gives grants. A stand, where Israel claims its military victory and the law of force.

Airbnb, Booking, Expedia, TripAdvisor and the Spanish company Edreams offer accommodation and other services in the settlements on their platforms.

For its part, the UN Human Rights Council updated the list of companies operating at the peak of business on June 30, 2023. There are many companies in the tourism sector among them. We are talking about those who make profits by facilitating the economy of settlements. In particular, Airbnb, Booking, Expedia, TripAdvisor and the Spanish company Edreams, which offers accommodation and other services in settlements on its platforms. Colonization resulting from force, confiscation and plunder of the Palestinians. Other companies, in still other areas, involved in the occupation are the Spanish CAF, COMSA and OSSA.

Both FITUR, UNWTO and the mentioned companies are participants in Palestinian colonization. The Spanish government and the EU do not do anything against Adreams, nor do they do anything against CAF, COMSA, OSSA and other companies that are agents of the occupation, and do so, for example, by preventing them from bidding on public procurement. Can.

Tourists, we can. Forcing governments to be consistent and symmetrical in upholding the international law they claim to defend and engaging in conscious tourism, rejecting companies and destinations that promote injustice, dependency and occupation .