JustGiving is refusing to pay out a sum of over £4,000 to an IDF crowdfunding appeal, claiming that they do not allow weapons to be bought for a “militia”. On 15 October 2023 a Londoner set up a JustGiving page to raise money to buy Leatherman tools for her brother-in-law’s IDF unit.

The JustGiving page explains that the tool would be invaluable for soldiers who use them to carry out repairs to their equipment. But when the fundraiser tried to withdraw the funds – which came to £4,195 – around 10 days later, she found that JustGiving had frozen the account.

She was later informed by the online giant that it is withholding the funds on the basis that: “We don’t allow campaigns to run on our platform which are funding militia and or weapons”.

UKLFI has taken up the case and written to Jon Olson, Senior Vice President & General Counsel of Blackbaud Inc (the parent company of JustGiving) to appeal against their decision to freeze the account.

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.

In their letter, UKLFI point out: “Israeli soldiers are not a militia or part of a militia. The IDF is a sovereign army and is currently fighting against terrorists. Support for a sovereign army is not precluded by Blackbaud’s terms and conditions.”

UKLFI also argued that a Leatherman tool is not a weapon of war. “It is a multi-tool, which includes scissors, can opener, nail file, screwdriver, pliers and a very small knife,” the UKLFI letter said.

“As you can see, this is by not by any means a weapon, but is a useful multi-purpose tool. Therefore the money from the campaign was not used for the ‘purchase or procurement of weapons’.”

UKLFI urged JustGiving to release the funds, arguing that it is a case of discrimination, contrary to section 29 of the Equality Act 2010, since JustGiving fundraisers are used to collect money for members of other armies around the world without hindrance.

This is not the first time that JustGiving has frozen fundraising to help members of the IDF.

In a separate case, JustGiving refused to pay out a sum of over £20,000 for over a month to a crowdfunding appeal for mobile phone chargers for Israeli soldiers on the basis that they deemed the IDF to be a “militia” and the mobile phone chargers were “weapons”.

In their letter, UKLFI said: “Blackbaud supports and enables numerous campaigns for buying equipment for soldiers all over the world, but we now have evidence that it chose to block at least two campaigns to support Israeli soldiers.”

Caroline Turner, a director at UKLFI, said: “This is now the second case we have had where JustGiving has frozen funds relating to IDF fundraisers. In both cases, JustGiving has argued that the funds will be used to procure weapons for a militia. But this is simply untrue and, even worse, it is discriminatory against Israelis.

“We very much hope JustGiving will come to its senses and release the funds, as it did in the previous case following our involvement.”