Every morning starting at 3am, tens of thousands of Palestinians start crossing Israeli military checkpoints to get to work. It can take hours. And too often, the endless wait can turn violent as people are crushed by crowds or shot by soldiers.

Meanwhile, Palestinians who do online freelance work run into another problem: they can’t get paid. The world’s biggest online payment platform, PayPal, won’t serve Palestinians living in Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 

It’s clear discrimination – Israelis living in the illegal settlements in the very same locations are allowed to create PayPal accounts.

But there may be progress – we have heard from multiple sources in the last month that PayPal may be taking steps to provide service to all Palestinians.

Now is the time to join the tens of thousands Ekō (*formerly SumOfUs) members who have already signed the petition calling on PayPal to stop discriminating against Palestinians.

The Israeli occupation makes it next to impossible for Palestinians to make ends meet. Unemployment is a shocking 48% in Gaza, so many Palestinians are desperately seeking other options like launching local digital ventures or doing freelance work online to get by.

There is no reason for PayPal to continue this discrimination – it’s biggest competitor, Apple Pay, serves Palestinians. Yet, PayPal continues its discrimination against Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza in direct violation of UN guidelines.

SumOfUs members like you made a huge difference in getting Ben & Jerry’s to be the first large global corporation to pull out of the illegally Occupied Palestinian Territory in years. Multiple sources within the company said the ten of thousands of you that took action had a huge impact in this decision.

So we know we can push PayPal to join Ben & Jerry's to be on the right side of Palestinian justice. This is why, we have joined forces with groups such as 7amleh, and MPower Change to call out PayPal’s failure to operate in Palestine.

Tell PayPal to stop discriminating against Palestinians and offer its services to everyone in Gaza and the West Bank.

*Members like you voted for Ekō as our new name to represent this community and our power that echoes all around the world. We’ve grown from a small corporate accountability group campaigning mostly in the US to a 20 million strong movement working in 7 languages.

Together we look forward to fighting back, and winning, against corporations that choses profit over water and people.

Petition updated June 2022 in collaboration with 7amleh, The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media

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