[...] Five Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, along with the councils of three villages they hail from, filed a formal regulatory complaint in Germany accusing the media giant Axel Springer of contributing to human rights abuses in Palestine. The villagers said that Axel Springer’s Israeli subsidiary Yad2, a classified ads platform akin to Craigslist, enables Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The Palestinian complainants cited Yad2’s role in hosting listings, sometimes for a fee, that facilitate sales, rentals, and new construction projects in Israeli settlements, which are considered by most countries of the world to be illegal under international law.

Filed by the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre on behalf of the Palestinians, the complaint says that Yad2’s facilitation of settlement activity — which was first reported by The Intercept — fuels Israeli land grabbing and therefore violates Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. Passed last year, the law requires German companies to identify and mitigate human rights risks within their global supply chains, including in subsidiaries which they control.

“Contributing to land theft and unlawful evictions of Palestinians in the West Bank would be a direct violation of the Supply Chain Act,” said Annabell Brüggemann, the legal adviser on business and human rights at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, an independent nonprofit based in Berlin. [...]

The complaint will go through an initial period of review by regulators to examine its merit, particularly looking at the level of Springer’s influence over Yad2, before it becomes a full-fledged investigation. Julia Sommerfeld, a spokesperson for Axel Springer, said on Saturday that the company had not received any information about the complaint. [...]

“If BAFA acts decisively,” said Robert Grabosch, one of the lawyers supporting the plaintiffs with their complaint, “illegal listings could be removed within days.”

Showing Springer’s decisive influence with its subsidiary could lead BAFA to force the removal of the offending real estate listings, said Brüggemann, the legal expert. [...] 

Axel Springer is a major global player in news media. Internationally, the company owns a host of influential outlets, including Politico and Business Insider in the U.S.

Europe’s largest publisher, the conglomerate also owns several German outlets, including Bild, the country’s biggest newspaper. Springer also owns Upday, Europe’s largest news aggregator app. [...]

Critics say Springer’s media empire holds disproportionate sway over German discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bild, for example, has faced criticism for fostering anti-Palestinian bias. [...]