After 465 days of a relentless genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza, a fragile ceasefire has been agreed.

90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, infrastructure has been systematically decimated, and direct and indirect deaths are likely in the many hundreds of thousands. This is a moment for relief, for grief, for anger, and for mourning. The future remains uncertain, the terms of a permanent ceasefire still to be determined, and the possibility of true liberation—from the river to the sea—still far from reach.

We must accelerate our organizing. Now is the time to double down, not retreat. Over the last 18 months we have seen an unprecedented display of people power across the globe as more and more of us have understood—have seen played out in a technicolour display of horror—that colonialism and freedom can never live side by side. The last 15 months have shattered the very foundations of life in Gaza. Across the world, many of us have been changed forever. As more and more people everywhere have come into political consciousness, taken to the streets and organised in their homes and workplaces, institutions of power have redoubled their efforts to punish those who diverge from received orthodoxies. The philanthropic sector has been no different. 

Despite this, hundreds of us in philanthropy have continued to show up, to organise, to keep Palestine on the agenda, and most importantly to move money into Gaza, despite a rapid retreat of funding from the field and ongoing threats to our individual organisations. None of it has been enough. But what we have started has laid the seeds for something better to emerge. Now is the time to double down on that possibility.

If the ceasefire holds, we will enter a new phase of this genocide, another moment of jeopardy in an 80-year continuum of colonial rule. We are about to see the largest influx of aid into a territory in modern history. And we know what happens when humanitarian and development capital is directed by occupying powers. A land grab is ramping up in the West Bank and the Occupied Syrian Golan, while colonial expansionist aspirations accelerate across the region as a whole. In Gaza, plans for high-rise beachside condominiums are already on display at investor conferences, even as families search for their loved ones under the rubble. Will Gaza be rebuilt by those to whom it has always belonged, or will the funds that flow only serve to reinforce a new form of imperial control? 

The role of progressive philanthropy could not be clearer. As the aid industry reverts to business as usual, we have a unique role to play in moving resources at speed and scale to Palestinian society—to rebuild homes, schools, health centres, and civic infrastructure. To repair the land. To make music and art and to write words of poetry and prose again. To bury the dead and to find ways to heal from the unhealable. This should not be new work for any of us. This is precisely what human rights philanthropy does at its highest and best. Show up with the liberated resources that support communities to live lives of dignity, safety, and justice, on their own terms. 

There is so much that is still unknown, and yet in so many ways nothing has changed. Our calls to action remain clear:

• Open up your discretionary funds now. Move resources at speed and scale to frontline Palestinian organizations operating across the Gaza Strip, either directly or through trusted intermediaries. Email contact@funders4palestine.org to access a vetted list of intermediary partners who are moving funds to frontline Palestinian organizations.

• Join a conversation about long term philanthropic funding mechanisms for Gaza. Reach out to us here to learn more.

• Stay tuned for more information about F4P’s 2025 campaign, coming soon. Join the mailing list or contact us to get involved. 

• Frontline solidarity organizing in the USA and Europe remains critical and needs to be resourced. 

• Keep talking to your peers and amplify our shared messages through social media. #Funders4Palestine

In gratitude for all that we have done together, and in fortitude for all that is to come,

Funders4Palestine