LONDON — One of the world’s largest international tourism trade exhibitions is facing scrutiny after it was revealed that it will provide a global platform for an Israeli government agency directly implicated in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the expansion of illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.
The World Travel Market (WTM) London, scheduled to take place from November 3 to 5, will feature a dedicated stand for the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA), alongside other companies profiting from Israel’s settler-colonial enterprise.
The JDA is a central architect of Israel’s efforts to Judaise occupied East Jerusalem. The agency is heavily involved in the construction and expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, including the development of so-called “Biblical parks.” These parks are widely recognised by human rights monitors as a pretext for land confiscation and the forced displacement of indigenous Palestinians.
“Hundreds of Palestinians have been displaced or are at risk of being forced out of their homes to make space for these parks in violation of the Geneva Conventions,” the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement stated regarding the JDA’s practices.
Beyond the “Biblical parks,” the JDA has played a key role in expanding illegal settlement blocs such as Gilo. The agency is currently advancing plans for massive settlement housing projects near the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Beit Safafa and Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem—moves that threaten to displace dozens of Palestinian families and further fragment the occupied city.
The Israeli government’s tourist office stand will not operate alone. According to reports from Middle East Eye, it will be shared with Africa Israel Hotels, a corporation with a documented history of building and operating within illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Also present will be iTravelJerusalem, a promotional body that markets tourism in occupied East Jerusalem, actively whitewashing the reality of military occupation for international visitors.
The participation of these entities at a premier London event highlights a stark and glaring hypocrisy within the British establishment.
Just last month, the UK government announced a ban on goods produced in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband explicitly condemned the Israeli government’s push for the E1 settlement project—a massive development designed to bisect the West Bank, cut off East Jerusalem, and permanently destroy the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. During the announcement, Miliband went so far as to refer to violent Jewish settlers as “terrorists” carrying out ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.
Yet, despite this tough political rhetoric and the formal ban on settlement goods, the UK continues to allow the economic normalisation and international promotion of the very agencies and corporations driving the displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
The inclusion of the JDA and its corporate affiliates at the WTM London expo serves as a stark reminder of the international complicity in Israel’s ongoing apartheid regime. While Western capitals issue verbal condemnations of settlement expansion in the West Bank, their premier economic and cultural platforms continue to roll out the red carpet for the architects of Palestinian displacement.
Palestinian rights advocates and anti-apartheid activists have long called for comprehensive boycotts of Israeli institutions and companies complicit in the occupation, arguing that as long as global events like the WTM continue to provide legitimacy to these entities, the theft of Palestinian land will persist unchecked.
Reference: The Cradle