Yad2
Yad2, founded in 2005, is an Israeli online classified ads website that functions similarly to Craigslist. It is the largest platform of its kind in Israel, offering listings including real estate, vehicles, jobs, and various second-hand items. Users can post ads for free, but certain categories, such as real estate brokers or dealers, are required to pay for their listings to reach a broader audience. Yad2 has a significant presence in the Israeli market; it is part of the Aviv Group and is owned by Axel Springer SE, a major European publishing company. The site has been noted for including real estate listings in Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law. Yad2 and all its subsidiaries are a direct target for boycotts.
Private Ads for Apartheid
Rental and Purchasable Properties
Yad2 includes ads for real estate listings in Israeli settlements that are considered illegal under international law. In December 2023, Yad2 ran an ad with the slogan “From the River to the Sea,” depicting a map of Israel and Palestine with pins dropped all over. The map disregarded internationally recognized borders and included occupied Palestinian territory. Below the co-opted protest slogan, the ad continued in Hebrew: “Yad2 helps you look forward and build a future in your next home in Israel.”
Yad2 contains thousands of apartments for sale and for rent in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Of those, some were paid ads. Meaning Yad2, and therefore Axel Springer, illegally made money on them according to international law.
Some of the ads are for homes in settlements considered illegal even under Israeli law; other home listings appear on private Palestinian land that was seized by the Israeli military but now hosts Jewish settlers. The website features a map searchable by region — a map where Palestinian villages and towns seem to not exist.
The Yad2 listings include properties for purchase or rent in extremists settlements in the West Bank, including Kochav Ha’Shachar, Kedumim, Talmon, Shilo, Eli, Psagot, Tekoa, Otniel, and Susiya. These settlements exclusively cater to Jewish Israelis.
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law by the United Nations Security Council, other international bodies, and every nation in the world except for Israel and the United States.
Springer’s revenue from ads for West Bank settlements homes isn’t limited to extant homes. Yad2’s sub-website, Yad1, also sometimes features ads to buy into a construction projects in West Bank settlement s. Yad1 has a geographic subsection titled “Judea and Samaria,” a term for the West Bank favored by Israel’s pro-settler right. Yad1 markets apartments across Israel–Palestine exclusively for the religious Jewish population — something the company faced scrutiny for in the Israeli media.
Apartheid Workers Listings
Yad 2's job portal, Drushim.co.il, features ads for private security positions at checkpoints and settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The listings include numerous positions for security guards tasked with armed duties and inspection at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. Job ads also appear for security roles at the residences of ministers in the West Bank and for guarding a facility in Hebron for the Prime Minister's Office security unit. Additional job postings advertise security roles in the settlement of Ariel.
Fair not fair
In April 2024, Yad2 hosted a real estate fair in Tel Aviv. It featured Israeli real estate firms, including both those that list properties within Israel’s internationally recognized borders and those that offer listings for Jewish-only settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The website for the Yad2 fair features a host of Israeli real estate firms doing business in the West Bank, including Tanya Israel, currently marketing 32 housing units in Efrat; Ram Aderet, which is advertising a construction project in Ariel; and Oron, with its “expansion project” of 40 villas in Eshkolot.
Also being promoted by Yad2 for its involvement in the fair is the firm Harey Zahav, which operates in multiple West Bank settlements including Leshem in Alei Zahav, Neria, and Maale Michmash. According to The Intercept, Harey Zahav operated a large booth at Yad2’s fair.
The same company was involved in multiple international controversies due to its genocidal rhetoric towards the war on Gaza. They published the following Instagram post, which is still active to this day.
The willingness of a large company like Yad2 to host Harey Zahav and companies doing business in West Bank settlements speaks to the level of involvement with illegal settlements for both Yad2 and its parents Aviv Group and Axel Springer.
Sources:
- The Intercept Israeli Real Estate Firm Used Genocidal Rhetoric — Then Politico’s Parent Company Put Them In A Trade Fair
- The Intercept Europe’s Largest News Aggregator Orders Editors To Play Down Palestinian Deaths
- Yad2 Real Estate News - Yad2's new apartments fair April 5-6
- Instagram hareyzahav
- Who Profits Axel Springer