Protesters target Wimbledon over Barclays sponsorship links to arms firms
Around two dozen demonstrators from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) gathered outside the main gates of the All England Club on Monday morning, just yards away from Centre Court.
They chanted: 'Barclays bank, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide,' and held banners criticising the bank's alleged investments in defence companies linked to the Israeli military.
Damian McCarthy, 53, a lawyer and organiser with the PSC, told the PA news agency: 'I'm a local resident – and a lot of people in Wimbledon think the genocide in Gaza is appalling.
'We want to raise awareness. Barclays' investment in genocide is wrong.
'It's not about Wimbledon, it's not about tennis, it's about the investment in genocide, and we've got to stop it.'
An artist taking part in the protest unveiled an installation in memory of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl killed in Gaza in January 2024 after her family's car was hit by an Israeli tank shell.
Barclays has been contacted for comment.
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Fox News
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an hour ago
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That criteria included: 'Any support for armed conflict, regardless of the country, which includes funding weapons, any supplies to soldiers, territorial defense forces' or 'Travel to any location to support military or territorial defense, except as required by a national government,' as well as pages that violate GoFundMe's terms of service or its processing partners' terms of service. Technical difficulties Not everyone is convinced that the double standard exists. Janet Miller is a tech writer who has successfully helped a number of people with frozen fundraising pages for Palestine to unfreeze them. She started helping in this way after connecting with a man and his family whose fundraiser had been picked for a program that matches Gaza fundraisers with influencers. 'Mohammed's was chosen by a writer named Sim Kern, and it quickly raised close to $100,000,' Miller told Fast Company in an email. The funds were meant to help Mohammed and his family flee the area. But then, the fundraiser was frozen by GoFundMe. Miller's tech writing experience helped her to quickly understand the issue and once she sent in the proper documentation, the funds were released, but the pause had happened at a critical time. 'They quickly unfroze the funds, but by that time the Rafah gate had closed. There was no longer a way to exit the country,' Miller explained. However, after helping one family, more people began to seek Miller out to help with their GoFundMe accounts. Each time she had access to the proper documentation, she was successful in ensuring the funds were released. 'The main issue was that they didn't think through how to get the funds to the beneficiaries, which is a major hurdle for Gaza,' Miller explained. 'I think they have one ATM machine left in the country. PayPal charges something like 25% in fees, and now most U.S. banks won't allow transfers to the Bank of Palestine. Many people in Gaza don't even have bank accounts, so they have to depend on Western Union. A lot of people use foreign brokers, which means that GoFundMe then has to email the beneficiaries to confirm that they really did receive the funds.' Miller added that the multistep process is complicated, especially as internet connectivity in Palestine is waning. 'GoFundMe does include instructions on their website, but those are a little bit buried. And you have to gather a lot of information from the beneficiaries, who give hurried answers in the few minutes in the day that they have Wi-Fi.' Other fundraisers face similar challenges Still, Al Jazeera reported that other pages had been shuttered, too. And dozens of videos can be found on TikTok recounting similar occurrences of having funding pages unexpectedly frozen. User @MerryFets documented the experience of having funds for Gazans frozen and asked followers to apply pressure to GoFundMe. The user's followers did just that, reaching out directly and tagging GoFundMe on social media, and in a follow up post, @MerryFets announced that the crowdfunding site had released the funds. 'We don't want to accuse GoFundMe of anything,' the user says in her video, while also pointing out that the page in question was run by a Palestinian-American. 'They chose to freeze her funds, but not any of the fundraisers we've had run by white, blonde women,' the user shared. But in some cases, even U.S. projects seeking to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza have been subjected to lengthy and frustrating review processes that the organizers feel is unique. Poppy Liu, an actor and activist, started a GoFundMe page in support of another project, which aimed to create truck billboards to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis. The page quickly hit its goal, but then was unexpectedly frozen by GoFundMe. Lui said it felt 'incredibly apparent that this is part of a national trend of censoring anything that talks about Palestine,' when speaking to The Verge last year. 'It feels explicitly racist. It feels anti-Arab,' the activist said. In Lui's case, the freeze was eventually lifted after complying with multiple requests for additional information, as well as demonstrating where the funds were going (to a U.S.-based project). However, Lui claimed that she's used the platform many times before and has never run into anything like what happened with the billboard campaign. 'I've never had an issue before and I've fundraised for things that were not even registered 501(c)s,' Liu said. Fast Company also spoke to Katherine Llewellyn, another GoFundMe user with a page devoted to Palestine, who said that while there were a ton of hoops to jump through, such as providing many verification documents, she hasn't encountered any issues on the platform. 'The harder thing for me has been getting funds raised into Gaza after they make it to my account,' she said. The user had to switch methods multiple times due to roadblocks as the destruction mounted. At present, the fundraiser uses cryptocurrency, which she says 'in Gaza converts into cash via a broker who takes approximately 30% off the top.' PayPal also under fire GoFundMe is not the only site that has been accused of blocking funds to Palestine. PayPal has been met with harsh criticism because the financial site actually does clearly disallow their services to Palestinians, while Israelis living in the same areas have access, and Apple Pay, PayPal's biggest competitor, serves Palestinians. In 2023, 7amleh, The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, along with members of Congress, sent a letter to PayPal, urging the company to open services to Palestinians, calling the blocking of services 'discriminatory.' 7amleh explained, 'Denying Palestinians access to PayPal's services affects the Palestinians' rights to access livelihood and work opportunities and participate in the development of their economy.' It continued, 'Furthermore, Mastercard, Visa, Swift, and Apple Pay have all entered the Palestinian market with no problems, so there does not seem to be any foreseeable barriers to entry for PayPal.' The group also launched a petition on the matter, which was signed by nearly 283,000 people, including actor and activist Mark Ruffalo. Fast Company reached out to PayPal for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication. Alternative platforms ease the burden Although GoFundMe asserts that it is not discriminating against Palestinian causes, other fundraising sites appear to be managing donations for the area without issue. Dajani said that the fundraising platform the site The Sameer Project moved to, has been a better experience. It's hard to say why the site isn't running into the same issues as GoFundMe, and Chuffed didn't respond to a Fast Company inquiry. However, the site is based in Australia, which makes it less of a target for American lawmakers. The site frequently features Gaza fundraisers on its main page. At present, it is highlighting fundraising for activists Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, aid funds for Palestine, and more. In its list of featured causes, also visible on the main page, Palestine is listed first. Like many American institutions, GoFundMe doesn't advertise support for Palestinian causes on its main page, perhaps in an effort to remain neutral. GoFundMe maintains that its policies are applied fairly and with the intent to keep users safe, although the experiences of some organizers raising money for Palestinian causes highlight the complexities of online fundraising during international crises. As the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, ensuring that legitimate humanitarian campaigns can operate smoothly remains a challenge for platforms, donors, and aid organizations alike.
