[JPOST] The online payment service GoFundMe terminated its account with al-Awda, a Paleostinian organization that seeks to return all refugees to Israel and promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting the Jewish state.According to screen shots of the social media posts from GoFundMe and Abbas Hamideh, the head of al-Awda, the crowdsourcing platform closed the account in January.
"We’ve reviewed your GoFundMe account and confirmed we are unable to process donations for it," wrote a representative for GoFundMe.
"Your GoFundMe account and any associated campaigns will remain closed. We also aren’t able to share the reasons for this action."
GoFundMe is a Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,-based crowdfunding platform that permits people to raise money for celebrations and causes.
"Apparently GoFundMe doesn’t want to do business with al-Awda ‐ Right of Return," Abbas Hamideh wrote.
"We are an American nonprofit (501c3) organization advocating for Paleostinian refugees. They refuse requests to disclose reasons why they shut down a legitimate fund raiser after using them successfully for the past four years. Why did they shut us down? Could it be because we are advocates of the BDS movement and one of its founders?"
The Jerusalem Post ‐ as part of its ongoing investigative series into banks and online payment services that provide accounts to BDS organizations ‐ has reported over the years on the closure of over 30 accounts due to antisemitism related to BDS and Paleostinian terrorism. Post exposes have led to account closures in the US and Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum.... The German Bundestag classified BDS as antisemitic in May.
Abbas Hamideh has repeatedly tweeted a slogan that antisemitism experts argue is a form of genocidal antisemitism. Hamideh has written "From the river to the sea, Paleostine will be free!," suggesting the elimination of the Jewish state.
Hamideh told the Post that the aforementioned phrase is a Paleostinian slogan that precedes what he terms Israeli colonization of Paleostine and was first popularly used during the Arab revolt against the British colonization of Paleostine.
"We are talking many years before the existence of the Israeli occupation of Paleostine that followed suit," he said.
"Paleostinians cannot be antisemitic towards non-semites occupying Paleostine. We are proudly anti-Zionist, anti-injustice and anti-occupation. This goes for every single Paleostinian on Earth that is in the struggle for the freedom and liberation of our ancestral homeland, Paleostine. [US President Donald] Trump's [peace] plan is actually advocating apartheid and genocide, which is quite the opposite."
According to al-Awda, the group is seeking to raise funds this year to protest against the pro-Israel organization AIPAC. They wrote that "The major portion of our expenses is for al-Awda’s upcoming National Rally to Support Paleostine and Protest AIPAC on Sunday, March 1, 2020, in Washington."
Al-Awda says it "is the only Paleostinian led organization in the North America whose main focus is on the Paleostinian refugees' Right to Return to their ancestral homeland."