Campaign group says literary festival must sever ties with ‘settlement-profiting platform’
PALESTINE Solidarity Campaign Cymru (PSC Cymru) has called on the Hay Festival to end its sponsorship partnership with Airbnb, amid growing international criticism of the company’s involvement in Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
The campaign group says the festival’s association with Airbnb is “deeply incompatible” with the values of human rights, free expression, and storytelling that the Hay Festival claims to champion.
The controversy has already seen high-profile withdrawals from this year’s festival. UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese and forensic architect Professor Eyal Weizman of Goldsmiths, University of London, both pulled out of the event in protest at Airbnb’s sponsorship.
In a public statement, Albanese accused Airbnb of profiting from “an economic system that supports occupation, annexation, and forced displacement.”
The United Nations has previously included Airbnb in its database of companies linked to Israel’s settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank — settlements widely regarded as illegal under international law.
Airbnb has partnered with the Hay Festival to launch a writing award titled Room to Write, which promotes “creativity and the importance of place and space in storytelling.”
PSC Cymru said the partnership was “bitterly ironic”, arguing that Airbnb continues to list properties on land from which Palestinians have allegedly been displaced.
The group also pointed to previous backlash faced by Airbnb sponsorship deals elsewhere in the cultural sector. During Australia’s Vivid Sydney festival, several artists withdrew from the programme over Airbnb’s involvement, citing concerns about the company’s settlement listings. Airbnb was later dropped as a sponsor.
PSC Cymru Co-Chair Bethan Sayed said: “It is deeply shocking, and bitterly ironic, that the Hay Festival has taken money from Airbnb to promote ‘the importance of place and space in storytelling’, while Airbnb profits from the violent erasure and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
“Airbnb is complicit in a war crime. Its settlement listings help fuel the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes and land, propping up Israel’s system of apartheid, and forcing Palestinians into isolated enclaves.
“By accepting Airbnb’s sponsorship, the Hay Festival is sending a clear message that Palestinian lives are not important, that stolen land is acceptable, and that war crimes are acceptable.
“We say: it is not. The Hay Festival would not platform a plagiarist, and it must not platform land theft. Close the book on Airbnb. End the sponsorship now.”
PSC Cymru is calling on the Hay Festival to terminate its partnership with Airbnb immediately, while also urging authors, speakers, and festival-goers to publicly oppose the sponsorship arrangement.
The group has launched an online campaign titled No Room for Apartheid at Hay Festival: Close the Book on Airbnb, encouraging members of the public to sign an e-action demanding the sponsorship deal be scrapped.
