JustGiving refused to pay out a sum of over £20,000 to a crowdfunding appeal on the basis that they deemed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to be a “militia”.
The online giant withheld the funds – which came to £21,710 – for over a month, claiming that there was a risk the money would be used to “support a militia” and pay for “military activity”.
UKLFI took up the case and wrote to Blackbaud Inc which is the parent company of JustGiving, to appeal against their decision to freeze the account.
Following a series of letters back and forth between UKLFI and JustGiving’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, as well as a meeting with JustGiving executives, JustGiving agreed to release the funds and acknowledged they had been wrong to withhold them.
The crowd funder was set up by two friends, one based in Israel and the other in London, on 8 October to help Israeli soldiers keep in touch with their families.
The JustGiving page explained that it aimed to raise money to buy portable mobile phone chargers for IDF soldiers, so they could call their loved ones to tell them they are safe.
The crowdfunder raised £ 21,710 from 147 donors around the world, putting their campaign in the top one per cent of fundraisers that month.
But when they tried to draw down their funds on 30 October, they were told that their account was frozen as their fundraising campaign had breached JustGiving’s “community guidelines”.
At the time, JustGiving’s guidelines stated that it did not permit campaigns that seek to “fund terrorism, rebel groups, militias or gangs”. Funds that may go towards the “procurement of weapons” are also barred.
As a result, JustGiving said it had frozen the funds and threatened to either send the money back to donors or hand it over to a different charity.
UKLFI wrote to Blackbaud Inc which is the parent company of JustGiving, to point out that the IDF is not a militia and that mobile phone chargers are not weapons.
JustGiving subsequently updated its policy to say it would remove “pages that promote or seek to support any military organisation”.
UKLFI argued that it amounted to discrimination under the Equality Act to apply this policy to an Israeli campaign, while the policy had not been applied, for example, to numerous fundraisers for Ukrainian soldiers.
UKLFI added that the change in terms appeared to be an attempt to “manufacture evidence in order to support their desire to discriminate against the campaign based on clear anti-Israel bias”.
JustGiving’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel initially told UKLFI that: “Our terms and guidelines do not permit campaigns that seek to fund militias or the procurement of weapons. Upon our review of your campaign, we have determined that the risk of these funds being used to support a militia is apparent”.
But after a further letter from UKLFI and a meeting with senior executives, JustGiving eventually agreed to release the funds.
Caroline Turner, a director at UKLFI, said: “It is absolutely outrageous and deeply worrying that senior executives at JustGiving maintained that the IDF is a militia and blocked the release of the funds.
“The IDF is a sovereign military army, fighting a war against the terrorist group Hamas. Soldiers take huge precautions while operating in extremely difficult circumstances. It is not only incorrect but also an insulting slur to call the IDF a militia.
“This is typical of the kind of discrimination that Israelis and Israeli causes experience on a daily basis. I am glad JustGiving eventually released the funds, following our interventions.”
