It is appalling to learn Paypal services are not available for individuals in Palestine generally and in GAZA strip particularly. 

PayPal has been condemned by pro-Palestine activists for refusing to allow Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to open accounts. Though PayPal is refusing to take up Palestinian customers within the occupied Palestinian territories, Israelis living in illegal West Bank settlements have no problem about access to the service. This has sparked a lot of controversy on social media and amongst Palestinian entrepreneurs, who are finally speaking out against PayPal’s clearly discriminatory policy.

Despite the fact that the Israeli Shekel is the currency in both Palestine and Israel, Palestinians are disproportionately on the lower socio-economic scale. With high unemployment, many Palestinians are looking to entrepreneurial means in order to survive. This does not always mean selling products; many Palestinians sell services online, such as translations or teaching Arabic through lessons on Skype. Because PayPal is generally perceived to be a safe way to pay for products and services online, many Palestinians miss out on looking to the internet for self-sufficiency.

As a result, many Palestinians are coerced into working in low-paid jobs within illegal Israeli settlements. Children are all too often forced to leave school in order to seek work and help their families. On average, these children earn $18 a day doing agricultural work, even though the national minimum wage is supposed to be $6 an hour. For this reason, they are missing out on vital education and are forced into a growing poverty trap, sometimes turning to crime as a means to survive.

As long as PayPal allows Israelis living in illegal settlements to have an account but not Palestinians in the West Bank, the company is not only — perhaps unwittingly — perpetuating the wealth gap between the local population and settlers within the Occupied Territories, but also perpetuating the cycle of poverty within the Palestinian population. Settlement businesses are able to trade with no restrictions, despite the fact that some use child labour, pay below the minimum wage and operate on Palestinian territory illegally.

Gaza is especially vulnerable to PayPal’s lack of services, due to the fact that its economy is already shattered. According to the World Bank, youth unemployment in Gaza alone is at 60 per cent, giving it the highest youth unemployment rate in the MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) region. The overall unemployment rate in Gaza is 43 per cent, the highest in the world. Steen Lau Jorgensen, the bank’s Director for the West Bank and Gaza, has warned that Gaza’s exports have “virtually disappeared” and that “Gaza cannot survive without being connected to the outside world.” Not having access to PayPal isn’t just a significant inconvenience; for Palestinians in the coastal enclave, having access to PayPal would be a survival mechanism.

I am asking you sign this petition in order to make clear to Paypal CEO that this is an unacceptable state of affair/policy to hold and therefore either change your policy (not to mix business with politics) or we will go somewhere else.