Booking.com, one of the largest hotel reservation sites in the world, has retracted the classification of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as occupied areas, in a move that Israel considered a victory for it.
The site succumbed to Israeli pressure, choosing to refer to the settlements as "conflict areas."
Booking.com said it would publish warnings for customers looking for accommodation in Palestinian towns or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as part of a new policy on safe areas.
A browser appears as "Please review your government's travel advice to make a wise decision regarding accommodation in this sector that could be considered to be affected by the conflict."
Netherlands-based Booking.com indicated that a similar message now appears when searching for accommodation in Northern Cyprus, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia.
However, this new message does not appear to the user when searching in East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, two areas also occupied by Israel since 1967.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said - in a statement - that Israel had achieved an important victory in the battle against delegitimization, thanking Booking.com and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism in Israel for the "quiet and effective dialogue" with this site.
About 475,000 Israelis reside in the West Bank in settlements that are illegal under international law, while 2.9 million Palestinians live in these areas.
In 2019, the platform specialized in renting rooms, apartments and homes, Airbnb, announced the cessation of its activity in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, while it continued in Israel, but later changed its decision.