‘Access to online platforms should be enjoyed without discrimination’: PayPal upholds ban on Palestinians amid pressure campaign
A new survey has found that 52 percent of Palestinians believe that their privacy and personal data lacks protection, and that Palestinian and Israeli authorities, along with telecommunication companies are some of the primary actors when it comes to violations of data and protection rights.
In October, software engineers at Google and Amazon wrote an anonymous open letter objecting to Project Nimbus – a $1.2 billion contract that would provide these companies’ services to the Israeli state – because of the harm it would bring to Palestinians. Yet these companies’ complicity with Israel’s colonial project goes far beyond direct contracts with the Israeli state.
Recent headlines have only confirmed people’s fears: Israel is monitoring and censoring everything about Palestinian life — both online and in the digital sphere. Mondoweiss speaks with 7amleh’s Nadim Nashif about the launch of the first open source online platform to monitor, document, and follow up on the digital rights violations of Palestinians.
Palestinian human rights organizations are demanding that PayPal end its “discriminatory” policy that prevents Palestinians from the occupied territory from using its platform. In a letter to PayPal’s President and CEO, a coalition of Palestinian human rights groups and international partners, including Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, called out the company for “contributing to human rights violations and discriminatory practices against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK, The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, 7amleh, and a number of other groups, are holding a digital day of action to draw attention to Facebook’s censorship of Palestinian voices.