U.S. Vice President Mike Pence denounced condemned the online marketplace and hospitality service Airbnb on Friday for delisting some 200 rental properties this month in Judea and Samaria, which the company alleged as “Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.”
“In the wake of Airbnb’s decision to ban Jewish homes in Jerusalem and the West Bank, we made it clear the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is wrong, and it has no place in the free enterprise of the United States of America,” Pence told the crowd at the fifth annual Israeli-American Council conference, where he was keynote speaker.
“We stand with Israel because we believe in right over wrong, good over evil, liberty over tyranny,” said Pence. “Because support for Israel is not a partisan issue, it is an American issue.”
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These accomplishments included enacting the Taylor Force Act to defund most U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority for rewarding terrorists and their families; moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, after the president recognized the capital of the Jewish state; and withdrawing the United States from what Pence called the “disastrous” 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposing all sanctionsthat were lifted under it.
Moreover, Pence denounced Hamas for launching more than 450 rockets from Gaza into Israel recently. He said that the attacks “must end and they must end now.”
Finally, the vice president also mentioned the aftermath of the deadliest attack in American Jewish history.
“I believe there may have been no better example of the president’s love for the Jewish people than the way the president responded in the wake of the terrible attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue,” he said.
Trump visited the site and stopped by the hospital where four wounded law-enforcement officers were recovering while trying to stop the suspect, 46-year-old Robert Bowers, during the attack.
“This anti-Semitic attack was an assault not just on the Jewish community,” said Pence. “It was an assault on all of us in America.”
Others expected to address the IAC conference include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.