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Fast Company
01-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Palestinian aid fundraisers face hurdles on GoFundMe
Over the past 20 months, as Palestinians have suffered under Israel's increased military presence, crowdfunding websites have become one way for monetary relief to reach those in need. However, a recent Al Jazeera report claims that a number of GoFundMe pages with funds meant for Palestinians have had funds frozen or even refunded, the organizers say, without proper cause. Frozen funds Hala Sabbah, the founder of The Sameer Project, told Al Jazeera that GoFundMe refunded more than $250,000 for Palestinians that was meant for things like tents, aid, and clothing, calling the occurrence a 'disaster' for the group's organizers. Sabbah explained, per the outlet, that the page had all the necessary components and was shut down without cause. 'Our GoFundMe page had daily updates with complete cost breakdowns of every single initiative we did—everything was well-documented, with receipts,' Sabbah said. 'We spent weeks fighting back, and they completely ignored us, even denying us access to our donor lists.' Fast Company spoke with Lena Dajani, The Sameer Project's cofounder, who said that, additionally, while their page was under review, GoFundMe left the fundraiser open to donations, which isn't the typical practice, and took an unreasonable amount of time to return the funds. That amplified the organization's challenges further when taking their cause to another platform. 'It took them six months to return all donations, preventing us from recuperating what we lost by asking donors to re-give to our new fundraiser [on ],' Dajani said. The cofounder added that when the page was taken down, it was completely unexpected, yet the platform refused to answer questions or respond about why it was removed. GoFundMe responds to allegations Fast Company reached out to GoFundMe about the incident. A representative would not speak to The Sameer Project's specific case for privacy reasons, or say how much money to Palestinian causes has been frozen to date, but adamantly denied that the site is withholding funds meant for Palestinians, calling those allegations 'categorically false.' The representative said, in a written statement, 'At GoFundMe, our top priority is being a trusted platform where people can help each other. Since October 2023, hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised on our platform and distributed to individuals and organizations to help people impacted by the conflict, and our Trust & Safety team continues to carefully review fundraisers and work closely with fundraiser organizers to ensure funds are delivered as safely and quickly as possible.' GoFundMe has been extraordinarily busy in recent years as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has grown more desperate, and with that, comes an uptick in scammers. Fundraising organizations have to be extra mindful that funds are being raised for the parties the fundraisers claim and that it can get to the recipient. If they don't do due diligence, they could face legal action, or an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In the wake of the Trump era, when even free speech in reference to Palestine has been penalized, the platform may be exercising extra caution around potential scammers, which, sadly, are often plentiful in times of crisis. According to GoFundMe's 'Giving Guarantee,' which ensures refunds for fraudulent campaigns, it has to refund campaigns that don't meet its criteria. According to GoFundMe's representative, fundraising sites have to comply with international laws and global financial regulations, plus the site's own Terms of Service, as well as the requirements of its payment processor. 'Apart from relevant consumer protections, we are bound by global sanctions regulations, as well as requirements from the financial services industry to verify the identities of our ultimate beneficiaries,' the representative explained. 'Failure to uphold our high standard of diligence and adequately protect our platform and customers could result in investigations and regulatory enforcement, and interruption of services by our financial partners.' Last year, as complaints about frozen funds for Palestine emerged on social media—with some using the hashtag #releasethefunds and claiming a double standard when funds were meant for Gaza—the platform addressed the uproar with a question-and-answer page, where the site laid out the grounds for fundraiser removal. 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.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As Gaza starves, GoFundMe accused of blocking ‘millions of dollars' raised
GoFundMe has been accused of blocking 'millions of dollars' of life-saving aid from reaching Gaza. Charity leaders, activists and desperate Palestinians in Gaza have condemned the crowdfunding website for shutting down or blocking withdrawals for Palestine-related fundraising pages – and have accused bosses of having 'blood on their hands'. Despite questions from Al Jazeera, the company has not revealed the amount of money raised on its platform for Gaza that has been frozen in its system or has been refunded to donors. But it has told Al Jazeera that more than $300m has been raised on the platform for both Palestinians and Israelis since Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023 and the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza. Hala Sabbah, the founder of mutual aid group The Sameer Project, said that in September, more than $250,000 of donations to her organisation was refunded. The London-based NGO-sector worker described the closure of her GoFundMe page as a 'disaster' for her group's efforts to provide emergency aid in the enclave. The Sameer Project runs a camp for displaced people in Deir el-Balah, providing healthcare and essentials to its residents – paid for by money that, until now, had been raised through GoFundMe, totalling more than $1m. It also funds food, water, shelter and clothing for people across Gaza. Sabbah said she was 'treated like scum' by GoFundMe, despite her group's pages raising about $44,000 for it in transaction fees. 'Our GoFundMe page had daily updates with complete cost breakdowns of every single initiative we did – everything was well-documented, with receipts,' she said. 'This information – including all transfers – was forwarded to GoFundMe, yet they still chose to shut us down.' GoFundMe notifies page organisers that there will be a 'review' process after they launch fundraisers related to Palestine – or 'the conflict in the Middle East', as it is phrased by the company's compliance team in emails seen by Al Jazeera. The company claims this is part of its 'standard verification process', but critics say it appears to inordinately restrict Gaza-related pages rather than those for other causes, such as Israel or Ukraine. GoFundMe has refused to disclose figures that show how many Israel or Ukraine fundraisers have been closed compared with those for media has been flooded with Palestinian advocates speaking out about their pages being shut down. Fundraisers for Israel and Ukraine appear to face little of the same scrutiny. And when they do, media campaigns can quickly force GoFundMe to act. One Ukraine fundraiser that was shut down in March 2022 was reinstated the next month after media coverage of the case. The company's long and intrusive review process often results in Gaza fundraisers being shut down and money refunded to donors or pages being 'paused', preventing funds from being accessed by account holders until the review is concluded. One United States-based fundraiser for the Sulala animal shelter in Gaza says it had about $50,000 dollars refunded to donors when its first page was closed. The team behind the fundraiser then created another page without specifically mentioning Gaza or Palestine, which was not flagged by GoFundMe, placed under review or paused, and ran for months uninterrupted. In the case of The Sameer Project, GoFundMe's compliance team said it was concerned about how funds were being distributed, and said that the documentation Sabbah had provided was not 'accurate, complete or clear'. An email to Sabbah added that there were 'material discrepancies' between the information shared and how funds were distributed to beneficiaries. Before shutting the page down, the compliance team asked for personal information about who was receiving funds, evidence of bank transfer statements and details about partner organisations, which Sabbah says The Sameer Project provided. 'We spent weeks fighting back, and they completely ignored us – even denying us access to our donor lists,' Sabbah told Al Jazeera. 'People can raise funds to help the Israeli military… and their pages don't get closed. But we try to raise money for diapers and lifesaving medication, and we get scrutinised and shut down.' 'We have children in our camp on the verge of death. The company has blood on its hands.' The mutual aid group – named after Sabbah's Gaza-based uncle who died in January – says it has provided more than 800,000 litres (211,330 gallons) of water, $100,000 in cash aid, 850 tents and medical treatment for 749 children across the enclave. It transfers money to intermediaries via makeshift exchange sites and by sending money directly to doctors or pharmacies. Crowdfunding websites have for months been one of the only feasible ways to help those trapped in Gaza. Famine is creeping further into the enclave, humanitarian aid is being blocked for long periods, civilian infrastructure lies in ruin and banks and ATMs have either been destroyed or have halted operations. Sabbah slammed GoFundMe for not justifying shutting her page down despite the huge amount of money the company made from the group's pages in'payment processing fees'. It charges 30 cents per donation and a 2.9 percent cut of the total raised. There are no banking services left in Gaza, but there are exchange offices – often people using POS (point of service) cash machines charging exorbitant interest rates – and the option to swap cryptocurrency for physical currency, amid critical shortages of the latter. Without regular aid flowing into the enclave, most charities rely on sending money via these limited routes to intermediaries who will distribute essentials and medical supplies. Some tinned food, tents and health products are on sale in Gaza markets. But cash is scarce, stocks are extremely limited, and most people cannot afford to pay. Since breaking the ceasefire agreement with Hamas brokered in January, Israel resumed bombing and re-established a blockade on humanitarian aid lasting months. Now, aid is only reaching the enclave through the heavily criticised US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Hundreds of desperate Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israeli forces at GHF aid collection still trapped in Gaza, Mostafa Abuthaher and his brother Yahya Fraij, aged 30, have twice created GoFundMe pages, and on both occasions, the company closed them down. Yahya lost his home and three of his cousins to Israel's onslaught, and now his family survives with only a makeshift tent near the beach in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. His wife gave birth to their six-month-old daughter during the war. Yahya told Al Jazeera that she has experienced nothing but suffering during her short life – and he has had to protect her from extreme cold and the trauma of Israeli bombardment. 'My daughter and I face death almost every day,' he said. 'And now we have nothing – not even a tent. The war has taken everything from us. 'We've been treated like animals and insulted by the world for the last 20 months.' The brothers had raised more than $12,000 to support their families until their first page was suddenly shut down. The company blocked them from withdrawing nearly $5,000. In an email exchange with GoFundMe, a compliance officer said Mostafa's page breached the company's terms of service for 'prohibited conduct', which covers fundraisers that are 'fraudulent, misleading, inaccurate, dishonest or impossible'. He was asked to send a photo ID, provide his location and explain why his page description had changed so often and how the funds would be used. Then his page was closed, after which he expressed astonishment and accused the platform of bias. The brothers say that many people in Gaza have set up GoFundMe pages because of the platform's size and reputation, and then found themselves 'trapped' once their pages began the often ill-fated verification process. Critics of GoFundMe say campaigns fundraising for Israel appear to be able to avoid similar interventions from its compliance team. Other fundraisers on the website state they aim to raise funding for 'equipment' that supports the Israeli military, or 'training' and travel for new recruits. A page raising money for gun sights and other equipment to 'safeguard' the Kishorit kibbutz in the north of Israel appeared to breach the website's terms of service, but was active for nearly a year before no longer becoming accessible. The terms of service prohibit fundraising for 'weapons meant for use in conflict or by an armed group'. Sabbah added that there is no guarantee that money from similar pages to fundraise for 'equipment' or 'security' won't be used to buy weapons, at a time when the Israeli government is actively arming its Jazeera sent several questions to GoFundMe, asking how many Gaza-related fundraisers there are, how much they had raised, the number listed as 'transfers paused and the total removed or taken down. We also asked the company to provide like-for-like figures for Israel and Ukraine. At the time of writing, GoFundMe refused to provide the specific information and data we requested. A spokesperson said: 'GoFundMe has helped raise and deliver over $300m from donors in more than 215 countries and jurisdictions to support individuals and organisations helping those in both Gaza and Israel. 'Any suggestion of double standards is wholly without merit, baseless, and contrary to the values that guide our platform. 'Any decision to remove a fundraiser from the platform is never taken lightly and is informed explicitly by our Terms of Service. Taking action like this is difficult, but it protects our ability to support people who are fundraising to help others.' Amr Shabaik, the legal director at the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera that the fundamental issue with platforms like GoFundMe was the 'imbalanced application of rules' – behaviour consistent with other forms of digital censorship since October 7. 'Algorithmic discrimination and targeting, looking for certain descriptors and categories – like Gaza or Palestine specifically in the last 18 months – means some pages are subjected to an unfair and high level of scrutiny that other fundraisers are not,' he said. 'All platforms have their rules and regulations, but they're applying them disproportionately and unfairly towards Palestinians.' 'There is a clear indication of a double standard. If you are actively preventing lifesaving aid – intentionally or unintentionally -– from reaching Gaza, it's tough to say you're not supporting a genocide.' Shabaik points to studies undertaken by Human Rights Watch (HRW), The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media and Palestine Legal that detail platforms' inordinate targeting of pro-Palestine pages or accounts. HRW says that between October and November 2023, 1,049 pro-Palestinian posts on Facebook and Instagram were taken down by the platform's owner, Meta. Palestine Legal says that between October 7 and December 31, 2023, the organisation received 1,037 requests for legal support from people 'targeted for their Palestine advocacy'. The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media documented more than 1,639 'censorship violations' in its 2023 annual report, including content removal and suspensions. Last December, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Freelance Journalists' Union said that GoFundMe prevented $6,000 of funding from reaching the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate after its fundraiser was shut down. This is despite the organisation being based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, not in union delegate, using the name 'Arv' as he wanted to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera the money would have provided protective helmets, press vests and other safety apparatus for journalists reporting in the territory. He added that GoFundMe said the fundraiser was shut down due to a lack of compliance with unspecified 'laws and regulations'. In December, a union spokesperson said on its Twitter page: 'Over the course of the fundraiser, we received a dozen requests for further information from GoFundMe, all of which were answered as thoroughly and in as timely a manner as possible, given the ongoing war.' Arv added that the union had been pushed to explore the use of other fundraising platforms because of the difficulty of working with GoFundMe. 'Current GoFundMe users should do the same before they too are caught in such Kafkaesque circumstances,' he said. The GoFundMe compliance team asked for business information, such as bank accounts, and even after informing the union the information had been accepted, the page was still closed down. GoFundMe boasts that it is the world's number one crowdfunding platform, but it only allows fundraisers to be created in 20 nations (not including Israel, Ukraine or Palestine) – meaning people in Gaza are reliant on intermediaries thousands of miles away if they want to receive donations. All those interviewed for this story and other campaigners have endorsed a boycott of the platform. Sabbah says she has since begun using the Australian crowdfunding website Chuffed, which reviewed her documentation and swiftly permitted her to withdraw, allowing her to continue her group's work in Gaza. The platform says it advocates on behalf of campaigners to sort out verification issues with its payment providers to prevent pages from being frozen or refunded. Chuffed general manager Jennie Smith said: 'We've been helping campaigners migrate from GoFundMe to Chuffed by the thousands over the last year and have seen firsthand the devastation the shutting down of their GoFundMe campaigns causes.' Yahya described life for his family in his makeshift tent. He walks miles every day to get water and wraps up his baby daughter for the cold winter nights, fearing they may not wake up in the morning. He says his family may have escaped the enclave if GoFundMe had allowed him to withdraw the money he raised. 'I try not to think about losing our money,' Yahya said. 'If I kept thinking about how terrible everything is, I wouldn't be alive now! 'But it makes you feel like everyone is conspiring against us. They are leaving us to die slowly.'
Al Jazeera
26-06-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
As Gaza starves, GoFundMe accused of blocking ‘millions of dollars' raised
GoFundMe has been accused of blocking 'millions of dollars' of life-saving aid from reaching Gaza. Charity leaders, activists and desperate Palestinians in Gaza have condemned the crowdfunding website for shutting down or blocking withdrawals for Palestine-related fundraising pages – and have accused bosses of having 'blood on their hands'. Despite questions from Al Jazeera, the company has not revealed the amount of money raised on its platform for Gaza that has been frozen in its system or has been refunded to donors. But it has told Al Jazeera that more than $300m has been raised on the platform for both Palestinians and Israelis since Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023 and the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza. Hala Sabbah, the founder of mutual aid group The Sameer Project, said that in September, more than $250,000 of donations to her organisation was refunded. The London-based NGO-sector worker described the closure of her GoFundMe page as a 'disaster' for her group's efforts to provide emergency aid in the enclave. The Sameer Project runs a camp for displaced people in Deir el-Balah, providing healthcare and essentials to its residents – paid for by money that, until now, had been raised through GoFundMe, totalling more than $1m. It also funds food, water, shelter and clothing for people across Gaza. Sabbah said she was 'treated like scum' by GoFundMe, despite her group's pages raising about $44,000 for it in transaction fees. 'Our GoFundMe page had daily updates with complete cost breakdowns of every single initiative we did – everything was well-documented, with receipts,' she said. 'This information – including all transfers – was forwarded to GoFundMe, yet they still chose to shut us down.' GoFundMe notifies page organisers that there will be a 'review' process after they launch fundraisers related to Palestine – or 'the conflict in the Middle East', as it is phrased by the company's compliance team in emails seen by Al Jazeera. The company claims this is part of its 'standard verification process', but critics say it appears to inordinately restrict Gaza-related pages rather than those for other causes, such as Israel or Ukraine. GoFundMe has refused to disclose figures that show how many Israel or Ukraine fundraisers have been closed compared with those for Gaza. Intrusive reviews Social media has been flooded with Palestinian advocates speaking out about their pages being shut down. Fundraisers for Israel and Ukraine appear to face little of the same scrutiny. And when they do, media campaigns can quickly force GoFundMe to act. One Ukraine fundraiser that was shut down in March 2022 was reinstated the next month after media coverage of the case. The company's long and intrusive review process often results in Gaza fundraisers being shut down and money refunded to donors or pages being 'paused', preventing funds from being accessed by account holders until the review is concluded. One United States-based fundraiser for the Sulala animal shelter in Gaza says it had about $50,000 dollars refunded to donors when its first page was closed. The team behind the fundraiser then created another page without specifically mentioning Gaza or Palestine, which was not flagged by GoFundMe, placed under review or paused, and ran for months uninterrupted. In the case of The Sameer Project, GoFundMe's compliance team said it was concerned about how funds were being distributed, and said that the documentation Sabbah had provided was not 'accurate, complete or clear'. An email to Sabbah added that there were 'material discrepancies' between the information shared and how funds were distributed to beneficiaries. Before shutting the page down, the compliance team asked for personal information about who was receiving funds, evidence of bank transfer statements and details about partner organisations, which Sabbah says The Sameer Project provided. 'We spent weeks fighting back, and they completely ignored us – even denying us access to our donor lists,' Sabbah told Al Jazeera. 'People can raise funds to help the Israeli military… and their pages don't get closed. But we try to raise money for diapers and lifesaving medication, and we get scrutinised and shut down.' 'We have children in our camp on the verge of death. The company has blood on its hands.' The mutual aid group – named after Sabbah's Gaza-based uncle who died in January – says it has provided more than 800,000 litres (211,330 gallons) of water, $100,000 in cash aid, 850 tents and medical treatment for 749 children across the enclave. It transfers money to intermediaries via makeshift exchange sites and by sending money directly to doctors or pharmacies. Crowdfunding websites have for months been one of the only feasible ways to help those trapped in Gaza. Famine is creeping further into the enclave, humanitarian aid is being blocked for long periods, civilian infrastructure lies in ruin and banks and ATMs have either been destroyed or have halted operations. Sabbah slammed GoFundMe for not justifying shutting her page down despite the huge amount of money the company made from the group's pages in'payment processing fees'. It charges 30 cents per donation and a 2.9 percent cut of the total raised. There are no banking services left in Gaza, but there are exchange offices – often people using POS (point of service) cash machines charging exorbitant interest rates – and the option to swap cryptocurrency for physical currency, amid critical shortages of the latter. Without regular aid flowing into the enclave, most charities rely on sending money via these limited routes to intermediaries who will distribute essentials and medical supplies. Some tinned food, tents and health products are on sale in Gaza markets. But cash is scarce, stocks are extremely limited, and most people cannot afford to pay. Since breaking the ceasefire agreement with Hamas brokered in January, Israel resumed bombing and re-established a blockade on humanitarian aid lasting months. Now, aid is only reaching the enclave through the heavily criticised US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Hundreds of desperate Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israeli forces at GHF aid collection sites. 'Treated like animals' Both still trapped in Gaza, Mostafa Abuthaher and his brother Yahya Fraij, aged 30, have twice created GoFundMe pages, and on both occasions, the company closed them down. Yahya lost his home and three of his cousins to Israel's onslaught, and now his family survives with only a makeshift tent near the beach in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. His wife gave birth to their six-month-old daughter during the war. Yahya told Al Jazeera that she has experienced nothing but suffering during her short life – and he has had to protect her from extreme cold and the trauma of Israeli bombardment. 'My daughter and I face death almost every day,' he said. 'And now we have nothing – not even a tent. The war has taken everything from us. 'We've been treated like animals and insulted by the world for the last 20 months.' The brothers had raised more than $12,000 to support their families until their first page was suddenly shut down. The company blocked them from withdrawing nearly $5,000. In an email exchange with GoFundMe, a compliance officer said Mostafa's page breached the company's terms of service for 'prohibited conduct', which covers fundraisers that are 'fraudulent, misleading, inaccurate, dishonest or impossible'. He was asked to send a photo ID, provide his location and explain why his page description had changed so often and how the funds would be used. Then his page was closed, after which he expressed astonishment and accused the platform of bias. The brothers say that many people in Gaza have set up GoFundMe pages because of the platform's size and reputation, and then found themselves 'trapped' once their pages began the often ill-fated verification process. Critics of GoFundMe say campaigns fundraising for Israel appear to be able to avoid similar interventions from its compliance team. Other fundraisers on the website state they aim to raise funding for 'equipment' that supports the Israeli military, or 'training' and travel for new recruits. A page raising money for gun sights and other equipment to 'safeguard' the Kishorit kibbutz in the north of Israel appeared to breach the website's terms of service, but was active for nearly a year before no longer becoming accessible. The terms of service prohibit fundraising for 'weapons meant for use in conflict or by an armed group'. Sabbah added that there is no guarantee that money from similar pages to fundraise for 'equipment' or 'security' won't be used to buy weapons, at a time when the Israeli government is actively arming its citizens. Double standards? Al Jazeera sent several questions to GoFundMe, asking how many Gaza-related fundraisers there are, how much they had raised, the number listed as 'transfers paused and the total removed or taken down. We also asked the company to provide like-for-like figures for Israel and Ukraine. At the time of writing, GoFundMe refused to provide the specific information and data we requested. A spokesperson said: 'GoFundMe has helped raise and deliver over $300m from donors in more than 215 countries and jurisdictions to support individuals and organisations helping those in both Gaza and Israel. 'Any suggestion of double standards is wholly without merit, baseless, and contrary to the values that guide our platform. 'Any decision to remove a fundraiser from the platform is never taken lightly and is informed explicitly by our Terms of Service. Taking action like this is difficult, but it protects our ability to support people who are fundraising to help others.' Amr Shabaik, the legal director at the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera that the fundamental issue with platforms like GoFundMe was the 'imbalanced application of rules' – behaviour consistent with other forms of digital censorship since October 7. 'Algorithmic discrimination and targeting, looking for certain descriptors and categories – like Gaza or Palestine specifically in the last 18 months – means some pages are subjected to an unfair and high level of scrutiny that other fundraisers are not,' he said. 'All platforms have their rules and regulations, but they're applying them disproportionately and unfairly towards Palestinians.' 'There is a clear indication of a double standard. If you are actively preventing lifesaving aid – intentionally or unintentionally -– from reaching Gaza, it's tough to say you're not supporting a genocide.' Shabaik points to studies undertaken by Human Rights Watch (HRW), The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media and Palestine Legal that detail platforms' inordinate targeting of pro-Palestine pages or accounts. HRW says that between October and November 2023, 1,049 pro-Palestinian posts on Facebook and Instagram were taken down by the platform's owner, Meta. Palestine Legal says that between October 7 and December 31, 2023, the organisation received 1,037 requests for legal support from people 'targeted for their Palestine advocacy'. The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media documented more than 1,639 'censorship violations' in its 2023 annual report, including content removal and suspensions. Last December, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Freelance Journalists' Union said that GoFundMe prevented $6,000 of funding from reaching the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate after its fundraiser was shut down. This is despite the organisation being based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, not in Gaza. One union delegate, using the name 'Arv' as he wanted to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera the money would have provided protective helmets, press vests and other safety apparatus for journalists reporting in the territory. He added that GoFundMe said the fundraiser was shut down due to a lack of compliance with unspecified 'laws and regulations'. In December, a union spokesperson said on its Twitter page: 'Over the course of the fundraiser, we received a dozen requests for further information from GoFundMe, all of which were answered as thoroughly and in as timely a manner as possible, given the ongoing war.' Arv added that the union had been pushed to explore the use of other fundraising platforms because of the difficulty of working with GoFundMe. 'Current GoFundMe users should do the same before they too are caught in such Kafkaesque circumstances,' he said. The GoFundMe compliance team asked for business information, such as bank accounts, and even after informing the union the information had been accepted, the page was still closed down. GoFundMe boasts that it is the world's number one crowdfunding platform, but it only allows fundraisers to be created in 20 nations (not including Israel, Ukraine or Palestine) – meaning people in Gaza are reliant on intermediaries thousands of miles away if they want to receive donations. All those interviewed for this story and other campaigners have endorsed a boycott of the platform. Sabbah says she has since begun using the Australian crowdfunding website Chuffed, which reviewed her documentation and swiftly permitted her to withdraw, allowing her to continue her group's work in Gaza. The platform says it advocates on behalf of campaigners to sort out verification issues with its payment providers to prevent pages from being frozen or refunded. Chuffed general manager Jennie Smith said: 'We've been helping campaigners migrate from GoFundMe to Chuffed by the thousands over the last year and have seen firsthand the devastation the shutting down of their GoFundMe campaigns causes.' Yahya described life for his family in his makeshift tent. He walks miles every day to get water and wraps up his baby daughter for the cold winter nights, fearing they may not wake up in the morning. He says his family may have escaped the enclave if GoFundMe had allowed him to withdraw the money he raised. 'I try not to think about losing our money,' Yahya said. 'If I kept thinking about how terrible everything is, I wouldn't be alive now! 'But it makes you feel like everyone is conspiring against us. They are leaving us to die slowly.'
Middle East Eye
01-06-2025
- General
- Middle East Eye
Amid Gaza food distribution chaos, Palestinian-led group steps up
Hala Sabbah's team has spent weeks trying to source a bag of flour in Gaza. 'We're not finding flour - or at least clean flour. It's all infested or mixed with sand,' she told Middle East Eye, speaking from London. Sabbah works with a Palestinian-led mutual aid group, coordinating with local volunteers who purchase and distribute supplies in Gaza, using funds raised through the project. Over a year ago, Sabbah and two other members of the Palestinian diaspora launched the Sameer Project - a grassroots initiative named in honour of Sabbah's uncle, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Amid Israel's ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2 May, which has cut off all aid and forced many NGOs to suspend their services, their work has become even more challenging. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters With flour scarce, the group has turned to rice distribution, but Sabbah is still doing all she can to find a bag of flour. 'People in Gaza really prefer bread. If you give them a plate of rice or a piece of bread, they will always take the bread,' Sabbah explained to MEE. On Tuesday, a fledgling US-backed initiative to distribute aid via private contractors descended into chaos, as Israeli forces opened fire on starving Palestinians near the aid hub, killing three and wounding at least 46 others. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it distributed just 14,000 boxes - each containing only 1,750 calories - well below the 2,100-calorie per day minimum set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency meals. For Sabbah, the contents of the GHF parcels were not just inadequate, but 'offensive". 'There were no vegetables, no meat, no fruit - nothing fresh,' Sabbah said. The entire enterprise runs starkly counter to the work she and her colleagues have been doing over the last year - working closely with Palestinians in Gaza and adapting quickly to respond to the needs of those on the ground. Agile and flexible Sabbah coordinates the Sameer Project with two other Palestinians living in the diaspora - California-based Lena Dajani, who organises medical aid, and an anonymous activist who runs the Instagram page, 'Translating Falasteen'. The trio have raised thousands of dollars and coordinated with people on the ground in Gaza to respond to requests for food, medicine and emergency aid via Whatsapp groups. With a skeleton team and a strong web of contacts, the group is agile and flexible in their approach, able to adapt quickly to the daily flurry of requests. While Israel's ongoing blockade has forced many international NGOs to halt or curtail their services in Gaza, the small network has doggedly pursued its work. 'Our biggest struggle is food. So, right now a plate of rice is around 8.5 dollars, with commission it adds up to over $10. This is a plate of rice that's barely enough for two people,' Sabbah said. A Palestinian child receives a Sameer Project food parcel (Supplied) The project also has to contend with war profiteering by armed gangs who loot and hoard the scraps of aid that have made it past the border, reportedly under Israeli military protection. But the Sameer Project's agility means they can buy products from a variety of sources, from street vendors and traders, unlike big NGOs which bring in their own aid and equipment through the border. 'These international organisations run under western frameworks are super process heavy and bureaucratic. They're not flexible, they're not agile. They don't make exceptions. They spend a lot on overhead,' Sabbah said. 'We create our own invoices, we just find a way to make it work. We don't stall the process'. 'Our end goal is the liberation of Palestine' Water distribution is another urgent task. The group rents two water trucks, which transport around 100,000 litres a day from desalination plants in the north of the Strip, where Israeli attacks have destroyed much of the infrastructure. The water costs around $46 per 1,000 litres, according to the group. 'After the [January] ceasefire, suddenly you had almost a million people move up north in the space of a week. In places like Jabalia and Beit Lahia, there's no infrastructure whatsoever,' Sabbah told MEE. 'We made sure that we delivered to those places that are not reachable to aid organisations, that don't have wells or where the infrastructure has been completely ruined'. Scarcity of clean water means children have to haul heavy jerry cans of water over long distances. The project recently documented a case of a child who tore his groin due to the weight of the jerry can he was carrying. 'The men of the family have to go and look for food or try to make money… so, that leaves the kids to go and get the water,' Sabbah said. A Palestinian child sits near Sameer Project water deliveries in Gaza City's Al Shati camp (Supplied) Sabbah emphasised that the project is not just driven by the urgent humanitarian demand on the ground. The water deliveries in Gaza's north for example, are needed to keep the areas habitable. 'Our end goal is the liberation of Palestine and making sure that everyone stays on their land,' she said. 'So, part of our way to support people in returning to their homes, even though they're completely destroyed, is to make sure that at least they have access to water and food'. Putting out a fire with a drop of water Shortages of medical supplies and personnel mean the group also has to scramble to plug the gaping holes in Gaza's severely-damaged health system. The group's medical coordinator, Lena Dajani, receives some 25 critical patient referrals via Instagram and Whatsapp daily, which she passes onto a medical point at the Refaat Al Areer camp, which the project set up in central Gaza to ease the burden on the Strip's hospitals. The medical point then contacts the patients, and Dajani purchases the medication, which has become nearly impossible to source due to the Israeli blockade. However, by being plugged into a network of pharmacies and clinics, Dajani is still able to meet most of the requests she receives. 'For one patient, we have to call maybe 10 pharmacies to just find a simple medication, and then we only give them a month's worth, because we obviously have to spread that amount between all the patients that need immediate care,' Dajani told MEE. The scarcity and soaring cost of medication is producing rising cases of treatable conditions. 'Epilepsy is really rampant, and they just cannot afford their seizure medication,' Dajani said. With hunger stalking Gaza, the project has been inundated with malnutrition cases amongst children. At least 60 are reported to have died since October 2023. 'Epilepsy is really rampant, and they just cannot afford their seizure medication,' -Lena Dajani, Sameer Project co-founder Despite baby formula being hard to come by, the group managed to buy around $51,000 in nutritional supplements. With the blockade and escalating Israeli attacks halting Unrwa and WHO-led efforts to control viral outbreaks across the enclave, the group now treats 300-500 patients a day for skin rashes, scabies, eye infections, and viral and bacterial diseases. 'Scabies cream is also incredibly difficult to source. You're supposed to take it over a long period of time. We're trying to put out a fire with a drop of water,' Dajani told MEE. The project is also grappling with cases of children with respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, due to drinking contaminated water. In one case, a three-year-old drank a bottle of detergent thinking it was water. The project rushed the child to hospital to have their stomach pumped. Painkillers and insulin are also near impossible to source. The nerve blocker Gabapentin was being widely used as an alternative painkiller - although even this is also now unavailable. 'We had a patient who had shrapnel lodged in his brain, and it's causing him so much pain that when he's off his medication, he smashes things around him because he is in so much pain,' Dajani told MEE. There are no wheelchairs in Gaza. Along with crutches and cochlear implants, the Israeli authorities consider them to be "dual use" items, meaning they could be used for "military purposes". Dajani has to wait for someone to pass away in order to buy one from a medical supplier. The chairs cost $550 each, with payment in cash - which is also difficult to come by in Gaza, with commission rates soaring to 35 percent. 'The entire healthcare system is now almost entirely being propped up by smaller groups like ours, who can source on the ground, who can take out cash at 35 percent,' Dajani said. 'Whereas the organisations with all these processes aren't standing up to Israel to allow them to operate here. We're not waiting. We're taking action'. No case like Gaza For Sabbah, the unravelling of the GHF came as no surprise. She said the fiasco is reflective of problems with international aid in Gaza. 'A lot of them come in with their own agendas. They have a lot of red tape. There's a lot of things that they can't do,' Sabbah said. Most importantly, she noted that international organisations lack cultural sensitivity and an understanding of Gaza. The Sameer Project had attempted to work with a US-led mutual aid group who wanted them to construct long drop toilets. 'They told us 'We need to do long drop toilets, because this is what we do in the US, and it's the best way to do toilets',' Sabbah said. When Sabbah explained this method was not practiced in Gaza, the group refused to work with them. 'Dehumanisation by design': US-Israeli Gaza aid operation descends into chaos Read More » 'There are always these impositions by western organisations, enforcing what they call international standards, which in reality were written by people from the West who have never experienced a genocide or a siege for 19 months,' Sabbah said. 'Our mutual aid group and a couple of others that we really trust, centre the people in Gaza,' she added. 'We're not here to manage the initiative. We are here to facilitate, we're here to make sure the money gets to the right hands'. For Sabbah and her colleagues, this is the only way to help people in Gaza, to let them dictate the aid they require, rather than having it imposed on them by NGOs headquartered in the global north. 'There's no case that is similar to Gaza,' Sabbah said. 'There have been genocides that happened for long periods of time, but a siege on top of that, and also an intentional famine all happening at the same time with no one being able to leave. 'I think that, after 12 plus years of working in NGOs and international organisations, I assure you, the UN would have had massive challenges in making this work, let alone an organisation like GHF that's run by a bunch of snipers and mercenaries."
