PayPal withholds $8k in funds raised for Gaza by NZ donors

Thousands of dollars donated for Gaza families are being withheld by PayPal without explanation. Photo / Getty Images

By Midday Report of RNZ

Thousands of dollars donated by New Zealanders for families in Gaza is being withheld by PayPal with no reason given.

A New Zealand writer who goes by the name of Emily Writes, set up the fund “Aotearoa to Gaza Mutual Aid” through Ko-Fi – a free crowdfunding platform that sends funds to PayPal.

In just 24 hours, the account had received over $8000 from about 900 individual donations.

Writes would then send the money on to Palestinians in need, but her request to withdraw money was denied and her account deactivated.

She told Midday Report PayPal would not tell her why the account was closed, and said the money would be held for 180 days.

“It was just frozen with no explanation and no ability to do anything about that. The money is just being held there,” she said.

Writes said she has spent days going back and forth with PayPal trying to get answers, but the company isn’t being transparent.

She believes the reason is political as she has heard from others who have also had funds for Gaza frozen.

“The minute they said that it was going to be for Palestinians it was shut down,” she said.

Midday Report has contacted PayPal for comment but has not received a response.

- RNZ