Palestinians have increasingly relied on crowdfunding for aid amid heightened military presence over the past 20 months. Reports indicate GoFundMe has frozen or refunded funds from campaigns supporting Palestinians, with claims of insufficient cause. Hala Sabbah of The Sameer Project reported the return of over $250,000 meant for critical supplies and assistance. Despite providing complete documentation, responses from GoFundMe were inadequate. The challenges included delays returning funds, affecting subsequent fundraising efforts on other platforms.
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.
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.
Dajani 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.
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