How Paypal stopped the Aotearoa to Gaza mutual aid fund

Lying on a pull out bed listening to the beeps and alarms of the hospital ward I watched the donations roll in. I was exhausted. But not as exhausted as my little boy recovering from surgery, his body hooked to machines. Nurses moved gently around us, checking oxygen, blood pressure, blood glucose levels...

I watched the number of donations going up and thought - we live in a country where people really, really, really care. I fell asleep with my phone in my hand for the next few hours.

I woke to find 998 New Zealanders had donated to a link I’d put up for the Aotearoa 2 Gaza mutual aid fund.

It’s a fund I’ve been running for a long time now. It’s for folks who can only spare $2 before payday but want to send that $2 Palestinians in desperate need. The fund supports 38 families because New Zealanders have given even when they had nothing. And they gave again the next week.

Previously, I ran the fund just by sharing my bank account number. But it grew and grew - because New Zealanders want to help Palestinians.

Eventually I started to get violent threats by Zionists and those threats began to focus on my children and they became particularly sexually violent in a way that I was struggling to cope with. Banks in New Zealand require full names and well, I would do anything for our Palestinian brothers and sisters, so I hadn’t thought about the impact on our family.

I had no protection. Just a bank account with my name on it.

Setting up a link through Ko-Fi which is about koha seemed like an easy step to keep my family safe. Immediately, folks began donating. Within two days we had $8,381.52 worth of donations from 998 New Zealanders.

Ko-Fi sends funds directly to Paypal. They don’t hold any money, it’s a fees-free service that is wonderful for mutual aid. I set up a fund for Paypal titled Aotearoa to Gaza Mutual Aid.

PayPal then immediately froze the $8,381.52 in donations. Without saying why, I was greeted with a page that said: “We’re no longer offering PayPal services for this account”.

What would happen with the donations that 38 starving families were relying on? Well, Paypal would keep it. For six months. The page further stated:

Your account has been permanently deactivated. However, you can still view your transaction history, download account statements, or request copies of your data.

Before you can withdraw or transfer any remaining funds from your account, we need to hold them for up to 180 days to cover things like chargebacks or other financial liabilities.

I encouraged those who made donations to request a refund. But then when I tried to accept the refund I was told I couldn’t. Because, you guessed it: “We’re no longer offering PayPal services for this account”.

At first, I thought it was just a mistake. I couldn’t find a human to talk to. I sent messages. I was stuck in an absurd loop - auto replies, circular questions, requests to explain goods or services. I explained: mutual aid. Still, no response.

I sent more messages. I called. I begged. But it didn’t matter. My account was deactivated. Not just locked. Not under review. Permanently deactivated. With $8,381.52 inside it.

When I finally got through to Paypal’s phone service I was told that I could appeal. Did I want to do that? Well, yes, obviously! She said she’d put that through and I would find out in seven days if the account would allow refunds. If the account stayed deactivated I wouldn’t be notified because they told me, “you’ve already been notified”.

‘What should the 998 New Zealanders who donated do?’ I asked the Paypal staff member by phone:

PayPal: “If you don’t want to wait for the appeal anymore the sender of the money can file a dispute. And then the recipient can send a refund”.

Me: “You know I’m the recipient? The person that you’re talking to? When PayPal tells me someone asked for a refund you won’t let me give them a refund because my account is restricted. You must understand how absurd this is? Can’t you just give everyone back their money?”

PayPal: “Your account is restricted ma’am”.

I spent the morning talking to my accountant who is so lovely and so smart. Then I spent twenty minutes crying to my accountant who is as generous as she is lovely and smart. I prepared for my meeting with my bank to try to work out how to have an account number that isn’t linked to my account.

All in all, I’ve spent more time in the last week working on the fund than I have had to for the last six months. And I can’t stop thinking about how every single road block possible has been put in place to stop us caring for each other.

This is how it works: shoot the children, starve the families, and freeze the koha. It’s not a glitch, it’s by design. This kind of structural violence is theft disguised as policy.

Mutual aid funds are not charity. They are rooted in solidarity. It’s about everyone giving what they can, when they can. Giving whatever bits of money they have or services they can provide to others in need. It’s about community.

There’s nobody taking money for admin. Nobody skimming the top. No advisors, no fees, no industry around the funds. It’s just giving.

And it’s a direct response to governments that do not care about us. It’s saying - we save each other.

So of course it's terrifying and not just inconvenient for big tech and banking corps when communities care for each other directly. Their entire business model depends on taking a cut from hardship, turning care into commerce, and inserting themselves as the middlemen of survival.

But mutual aid cuts them out. It says that we don’t need your permission to love each other. To show up for each other. To be there for each other.

We don’t need your fees to feed each other. We don’t need you.

What happens when everyday people realise they can meet each other’s needs without a profit motive in sight? That’s not just a disruption, it’s a threat.

That’s why I’m telling you that PayPal isn’t confused. It’s complicit. This isn’t a misunderstanding, it’s a deliberate act of sabotage against solidarity.

Mutual aid is also an infuriating concept for the Zionist entity and its supporters - they’re starving Gaza and knowing people on the other side of the world are aware they’re doing this and are fighting it in any way that they can, well that needs to be stopped.

Our government will not act in any way when it comes to the genocide. And we who have watched 19 months of children being slaughtered, health care workers and teachers being killed, aid workers being shot, journalists being set on fire, occupation soldiers playing with the toys of babies they killed and dressing in the lingerie of women they’ve tortured and murdered - we found a tiny thing. A tiny thing that made us feel like we could make a difference.

That light in the dark being snuffed out is devastating. But it’s a light that is not easily snuffed out. Because when we feel hopeless we look to the resilience and courage of the Palestinian people.

We had tried to do something. We had tried to help. We had tried to make a way for people here to stand with people there. We had tried to get money to people who had lost everything. We had tried to make a bridge of solidarity from Aotearoa to Gaza. They broke the bridge.

But we wouldn’t give up, because the Palestinian people don’t give up.

The morning when I thought there’s just no way I can get this to work I was sent a video from one of the families the mutual aid fund supports.

One of our little children looked into the camera, her tiny face showing the signs of malnourishment, her hair balding in patches in from stress, dark circles around her eyes.

“Look Emivy! Look! For your friends Emivy say we love you. Gaza loves you” she said.

She smiled wide. Her front teeth missing.

“My son leaned over.
‘She lost her tooth,’ he whispered. ‘Will the tooth fairy come?’

Yes, I said. We will find a way.”

If you are a lawyer with experience in banking or financial law, please contact me. I need help to fight PayPal and get $8,381.52 back to Palestinian families. I have no money by the way.

Please share this widely the more people who know, the more likely we are to find someone who can help. Email: mediarelations@paypal.com to ask them to unfreeze the funds.

If you have ideas for how we can run a mutual aid fund safely, let us know.

Mutual aid is about us saving each other. Let’s keep building the bridge they’re trying to burn.

I can only do this mahi because of you - thank you so much for becoming a paid subscriber.

What I should have known about Paypal

Needless to say, I didn’t know this a week ago and now I know.

PayPal has a number of policies that discriminate against Palestinians. PayPal does not allow Palestinians in Gaza or the occupied West Bank to open accounts. This is despite operating in Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank which are illegal under international law.

This means Palestinians are denied access to basic financial services like receiving invoices, payments for work, or donations while their Israeli settler neighbours can use PayPal freely.

This has been described by human rights groups as digital apartheid reinforcing and entrenching Israel’s regime of control and discrimination.

I have since found out that PayPal has frozen funds collected for Palestinian mutual aid across the world. Humanitarian organisations have said funds for Palestinians have been held for up to 180 days without clear explanation, using vague justifications like "risk mitigation" or “violations of acceptable use,” even when the funds were clearly labeled as humanitarian aid.

I was told decisions are typically automated and final, even when it harms vulnerable people relying on the funds.