AMMAN: Entrepreneurs and protesters have renewed calls for PayPal to start offering services in the Palestinian territories, saying the lack of provision is ‘discriminatory’ and hampers local startups.
The giant US online cash company does not allow anyone with a Palestinian address or bank account to register. Israelis, including settlers in the occupied territories, can easily join.
Ala Alaedine, the CEO of the technology company InterTech in Ramallah, told Arab News the absence of PayPal makes life harder for any startup.
“There are other alternatives, but they are not used globally as much as PayPal. In addition, the lack of e-banking solutions in Palestine makes PayPal more dependable.”
Zahi Khouri, CEO of Palestine’s National Beverage Co. and early-stage startup investor through the Ibtikar Fund, said: “All we want is equal access for our talented young people to bring their innovative products and ideas to the world.”
Under siege in Gaza and facing difficult political and economic situations, some Palestinians have tried to use their talents to create small one-person shops that are largely dependent on the digital economy. Without an easy and efficient pay system, however, they face a major hurdle.
PayPal claims it is not discriminating against Palestinians, although it is available in 203 countries and locations around the world.
Palestinian-American Sam Bahour, CEO of consulting firm Applied Information Management, took up the case with people in Silicon Valley.
He talked to peace activists in the US and encouraged them to do something to change this situation, which he said is hurting young Palestinian entrepreneurs.
“The message (PayPal is) indirectly sending is that they could not care less if these young people spend their time behind a keyboard or in the streets,” he explained.
Khaled Abu Al-Khair, CEO of the gaming startup PinchPoint, explained why PayPal’s entry to Palestine matters for his company: “One of PinchPoint’s best performing games is Al-Mamlaka, and over 60 percent of the players are based in Palestine. Many of them would like to purchase virtual items in the game, but are not comfortable paying through Facebook.
“Allowing these players to pay through PayPal will increase PinchPoint’s revenues from this game significantly.”
Several attempts in 2016 to get PayPal to fix the problem failed. In May this year, activists in the US and Middle East decided to escalate the campaign. On May 16, a demonstration was held outside PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose. Protestors included supporters of Jewish Voice for Peace, the Green Party, and the American Friends Service Committee. They delivered a petition, with 180,000 signatures from around the world, to PayPal executives.
Organizers said PayPal executives were very courteous but noncommittal. They assured the protest representatives that the issue was on the agenda of the company’s board.
Protestors against the policies of PayPal have spoken out against the giant online company. Civic activist Fadi Saba points out that PayPal serves illegal settlements in the occupied territories, but not Palestinians. “The Palestinian unemployment rate is 28 percent due to obstacles placed by the Israeli occupation. If PayPal is interested in a viable peace, it must allow for a viable Palestinian economy, which includes the tech industry that depends on online payment technologies.”
Nassim Nouri, council member of the Green Party of Santa Clara, wondered why PayPal would decide on such a “shameful and discriminatory practice” in the West Bank.
“PayPal is denying economic opportunity to disenfranchised Palestinians, while extending services to their Israeli neighbors. This is not an acceptable corporate practice in San Jose, so it should not be acceptable in the West Bank either,” Nouri said.
Wendy Greenfield, co-chair of South Bay Jewish Voice for Peace, questioned how PayPal would justify perpetuating a situation where its services are only available to a privileged population of Israeli settlers but not the Palestinians they live among. “The best route for PayPal would be to start outlining its plans to rectify this outrageous situation,” she said.
It is not clear what the real reason is behind the exclusion of Palestinians from PayPal’s services.
One organizer told Arab News the problem might stem from the company’s risk-management department. PayPal in 2008 bought the Israeli company Fraud Sciences for a reported $169 million and integrated its fraud-detection technology. Tomer Barel, a former Israeli army intelligence officer, has been the chief enterprise services officer and executive vice president of PayPal Holdings since January 2017.
PayPal declined to comment specifically on that issue when contacted by Arab News.
A spokesman for PayPal said: “PayPal’s ambition is for everyone to have access to our services for digital payments and commerce, in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements. We are in an ongoing dialogue with these organizations because, although we are not currently providing services in the Palestinian territories, we hope ultimately to be able to address the risk, compliance, regulatory and resource allocation issues to properly serve customers in this region and other nations where PayPal is not yet present.
“While we do not have anything to announce for the immediate future, we continuously work to develop strategic partnerships, address business feasibility, regulatory, and compliance needs and requirements, and acquire the necessary local authority permissions for new market entries.”
Criticism mounts over PayPal’s ‘discrimination’ against Palestinians
Criticism mounts over PayPal’s ‘discrimination’ against Palestinians
Red Sea marine traffic up 60 percent after Houthis narrowed targets, EU commander says
Gryparis said he could not guarantee that merchant ships won’t be attacked
MADRID: Red Sea marine traffic has increased by 60 percent to 36-37 ships a day since August 2024, but is still short of volumes seen before Yemen’s Houthis began attacking ships in the region, according to the commander of the EU’s Aspides naval mission.
The number of merchant ships using the narrow Bab Al-Mandab strait increased after missile and drone attacks by the Houthis slowed and the US and the rebel group signed a ceasefire deal, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis said in an interview in Madrid.
But shipping traffic, which reached a low of 20-23 ships daily in August last year, is still short of an average of 72-75 ships a day seen before the Houthis began attacks in the Red Sea in November in 2023 in support of Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza, said Gryparis.
The mission, which was established to safeguard navigation in the strategic trade route linking the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Asia through the Suez Canal, was extended in February when it was also tasked with tracking illegal arms shipments and monitoring vessels carrying sanctioned Russian oil.
The last attack on a merchant ship took place in November 2024 and the Houthis have also narrowed their objectives, saying their targets are Israeli ships and ships that have a connection with Israel or have docked at an Israeli port, Gryparis said.
“If you have a vessel that does not correspond to this criteria... there is a huge possibility — more than 99 percent — that you’re not going to be targeted by the Houthis,” Gryparis said.
Still, Gryparis said he could not guarantee that merchant ships won’t be attacked.
Some companies have been deterred from using the route because of the mission’s lack of ships, which can cause delays of as much as a week for those seeking to be escorted through the area, he said.
He said the mission has between two and three ships operating at one time and has requested the EU provide it with 10 ships to increase its capacity for protection.
The mission has provided close protection to 476 ships, shot down 18 drones, destroyed two remote-controlled boats used to attack ships and intercepted four ballistic missiles, he said.
How many hostages are left in Gaza?
- Hostages still in captivity: 56, of whom Israel believes 33 are dead
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has recovered the bodies of two hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli American Gad Haggai and Judih Weinstein — who was Israeli, American and Canadian — were killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Their remains were returned to
Israel in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency, Netanyahu said.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack. More than 54,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Here are details on the hostages:
Total hostages captured on Oct. 7, 2023: 251
Hostages taken before the Oct. 7 attack: 4, including 2 who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015 and the bodies of 2 soldiers killed in the 2014 war
Hostages released in exchanges or other deals: 148, of whom 8 were dead
Bodies of hostages retrieved by Israeli forces: 43
Hostages rescued alive: 8
Hostages still in captivity: 56, of whom Israel believes 33 are dead. Netanyahu has said there are “doubts” about the fate of several more.
The hostages in captivity include: 5 non-Israelis ( 3 Thais, 1 Nepalese, 1 Tanzanian), of whom 3 (2 Thais and 1 Tanzanian) have been confirmed dead.
Egypt, Greece agree to protect status of Mount Sinai monastery, after court ruling
- Egypt and Greece intend to move forward based on the long-standing tradition and the already established status of an emblematic monastery for its Greek Orthodox character of worship
ATHENS: Greece and Egypt have agreed to safeguard the status of one of the world’s oldest sites of Christian worship, foreign ministers of both countries said late on Wednesday, after an Egyptian court ruling last week cast uncertainty over its future.
The St. Catherine’s Monastery, at the foot of Egypt’s Mount Sinai, was founded in the 6th century and is the oldest Christian monastery still in use for its original function, says UNESCO, which has listed the area as a World Heritage site.
Revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, the monastery is at the site where by Biblical tradition Moses received the Ten Commandments.
But last week, an Egyptian court ruling seen by Reuters ordered Orthodox monks to vacate several plots of land that the monks have used for years, including vineyards and gardens adjacent to the monastery compound, on the grounds that they were illegally sequestered, prompting a diplomatic flurry between Cairo and Athens over the site’s status.
“We agreed in the immediate future to work toward safeguarding the rights of the monastery, as well as its legal status,” Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said after meeting his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Cairo.
“Both Egypt and Greece intend to move forward based on the long-standing tradition and the already established status of an emblematic monastery for its Greek Orthodox character of worship.”
Abdelatty said that the ruling preserves the monastery’s profound spiritual value and religious standing, and confirmed that the monks would continue to have access to and use of the monastery and its religious and historical sites, according to a foreign ministry statement. With a long history of diplomatic ties, Greece and Egypt have deepened cooperation in recent years.
St. Catherine’s is a sprawling complex, and according to tradition it was built around a burning bush where God was said to have spoken to Moses as described in the Book of Exodus. Its library is one of the most extensive worldwide, containing some of the world’s earliest Christian manuscripts.
Israel PM says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza
- The bodies were of Judy Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai from Kibbutz Nir Oz
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the bodies of two Israelis killed in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack and held in Gaza had been returned to Israel.
“In a special operation by the (security agency) and the (military) in the Gaza Strip, the bodies of two of our hostages held by the murderous terrorist organization Hamas were returned to Israel: Judy Weinstein-Haggai and Gad
Haggai from Kibbutz Nir Oz, may their memory be blessed,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Judy and Gad were murdered on October 7 and abducted to the Gaza Strip,” he added.
UAE, Egypt leaders renew call for Gaza ceasefire
- The two leaders stressed “the importance of intensifying efforts to achieve a ceasefire” in Gaza
DUBAI: UAE’s Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Wednesday reiterated the call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during their meeting in Abu Dhabi.
During the two leaders’ talks at Qasr Al-Shati in Abu Dhabi, they stressed “the importance of intensifying efforts to achieve a ceasefire” in Gaza and working “towards a clear political horizon for a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”
The US earlier vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate truce in the besieged enclave, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and unhampered delivery of humanitarian supplies territory’s starving population.
Sheikh Mohamed and Sisi, during their high-level talks, also discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries “particularly those that advance their shared development goals and serve the mutual interests of their peoples.”
They also reviewed regional and international issues as well as recent developments particularly aimed at restoring security and stability in the Middle East region.
