GoFundMe is imperiling the lives of Palestinians in Gaza by delaying the release of funds from “genocide escape” campaigns.
Pro-Palestine social media users are calling to boycott the fundraising platform GoFundMe over invasive ‘compliance measures’ for Gaza fundraisers. While manufactured famine creeps across the Strip, people are claiming GFM’s lengthy company procedures amount to racial discrimination and psychological warfare.
Since the Israeli aggression in Gaza has continued to escalate beyond comprehension, “genocide escape” fundraisers have become a social media phenomenon. Viral success stories of financial targets being met overnight have inspired hope; maybe mutual aid and a collective sense of responsibility can triumph over the most barbaric colonial violence witnessed both in our lifetimes and on our timelines.
However, organizers, desperate families, and individuals have been left enraged and disgusted as the same old dichotomies emerge: racist and deathly double standards, which effectively equate to the extension of apartheid across digital frontiers.
GoFundMe is refusing to release funds that could benefit and literally save the lives of countless Palestinian families, pending lengthy and intrusive investigations. Such investigations are not common for other fundraisers. Meanwhile, the website boasts about “crises management” and support for Ukraine and tornados in the Midwest.
On March 4, the money-making site posted a statement regarding its handling of campaigns for Palestinian beneficiaries. The statement exposes an unsympathetic, “both sides” Zionist stance as well as demonstrating a clear lack of understanding for the grave situation Gazans currently face. Subjecting Palestinians to dehumanizing and accusatory interrogations for wanting to secure their families’ safety makes GoFundMe another punitive entity, waging psychological warfare by allowing Palestinians to raise money and hope only to humiliate them when attempting to withdraw their rightfully raised funds. The company statement is likely in response to mounting social media pressure on platforms like TikTok and damning news articles detailing the discriminatory procedures against Palestinians.
What’s more, individuals with a high following and grassroots organizers are using their platforms to actively encourage boycotting GoFundMe while offering alternative ways to raise funds on platforms like Go Get Funding.
2.5 million people, the entire population of Gaza, are facing an immediate threat to their lives — displaced, starving, dehydrated, injured, traumatized, and under constant bombardment by U.S.-funded, Israeli-deployed bombs. The entire Strip is also completely besieged and blockaded by Israel and Egypt, the latter entity being responsible for setting the extortionate cost of evacuation from Gaza. This is the culmination of more than 160 days of endless war crimes perpetrated by Israel, amounting to the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. At present, more than 31,000 people have been murdered. Devastating images are circulating of people who have died by forced starvation. 70,000 people are in desperate need of immediate medical attention. Every hospital in Gaza has been bombed. Hundreds of doctors and medical personnel have been targeted and assassinated. Charity and humanitarian relief personnel from international agencies have also been targeted, bombed, besieged, and rendered incapacitated, expediting the need for digital mutual aid.
The IOF has also assassinated 126 Palestinian reporters and media workers since October 7, leaving civilians responsible for reporting on their own genocide while the majority of the world spouts Zionist propaganda, outright lies, or says nothing at all. Millions of people around the world have, thus, resorted to social media for on-the-ground news, which has caused follower growth for Gazan accounts to the tune of millions. With statistics rivaling celebrities and breaking news coverage, Palestinians in Gaza are now leveraging their viewership for mutual aid. Unfortunately for GoFundMe, such accounts are now also leveraging these follower bases in calling for action.
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