Illinois warns Airbnb that its settlement boycott violates state’s anti-BDS law

One of Bruce Rauner’s last acts as governor was to ask a state body to blacklist Airbnb.

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(JTA) — The Illinois state body that sets investment policy gave Airbnb 90 days to explain why it will not list properties in West Bank settlements.

At the request of Gov. Bruce Rauner, the outgoing Republican governor, the Illinois Investment Policy Board on Wednesday unanimously voted to notify Airbnb it is in violation of state law that bars state investment in businesses that boycott Israel or Israeli entities in territories Israeli controls.

Airbnb now has 90 days to respond, or it will go on the state’s list of companies the state must not engage in business.

Rauner, defeated in a re-election bid last month by venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish, was in 2015 among the first governors to sign into law a ban on doing business with entities that boycott Israel or its settlements.

Airbnb last month announced its change in policy, noting that it would continue to list properties inside Israel’s 1967 lines.

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