we should destroy society somewhat

this website - the "everyone here is notoriously already broke" website - has been funneling thousands of dollars to various gaza gofundmes. and then the "required" amount per person got raised, and then gofundme and the finance sites wouldn't release the money, and then the crossing got destroyed and no one can get through. and even when something reaches its goal, I've never actually seen a "success story" about someone getting out or getting their family of rafah because of it

serious question, has any of this mattered? did anyone actually get out because of a fundraiser? have we been doing anything at all other than laundering money for corrupt border guards? is this a better use of donations than, say, the esims? or donating to aid orgs? or any other way of trying to help?

here's the thing. fuck being overwhelming, fuck getting exhausted seeing the fundraisers every day, none of that matters. my only question is, have people actually been benefiting from it? not in a "I think someone is impersonating people and scamming us" way (I trust the verification work people have been doing), but in a "is this actually going somewhere" way. if every single "$5000 x number of people" fundraiser got filled up to the maximum, would it make a single bit of difference?

most of the families that made it to egypt before the border was destroyed by israel did so through funds raised by gofundme, including ahmed @90-ghost on tumblr, at least four people i know personally, and maybe hundreds more i know through acquaintances or i've seen on twitter. if you donated to these campaigns you would know this because they usually post updates saying "good news! we were able to get x out of gaza, but now we're trying to get the rest of our family out, so we've upped our goal to x."

most of the campaigns remain open because they will try to get the most vulnerable members of a family out first, after which they will try to get the rest out.

since the border was destroyed right now people are being displaced internally, which means instead of the money going to corrupt border guards it is used to buy tents, buy medical supplies, buy food, or rent some of the few units still standing in different areas within gaza. basic foodstuffs in gaza now can cost up to 200USD. and it is only getting worse and more extreme.

the only entries and exit are through israeli crossings now that egypt has no control over. egypt could be bribed. israel can't. they have a small list of injured children they occasionally evacuate through israel-controlled crossings and airbases, but just so you understand how this is also part of the genocide and how israelis use any excuse to allow more people from gaza to die, netanyahu froze one crossing as a 'retaliation' for the bombing of (syrian, arab) children in majdal shams that no one has actually taken responsibility for.

other crossings were out of use for weeks because israel allowed settlers to block the aid trucks going into gaza, until the rafah border was destroyed and these blockades were no longer necessary.

they also consistently close the single humanitarian corridor, kerem shalom crossing. yesterday it was open to deliver 80 bodies of unidentified dead palestinians to be buried in a mass grave, today the "humanitarian route" is closed until further notice.

if the border was still open, you would have more feel-good stories and you would be confident your money was going to evacuate people (also known as ethnic cleansing. i hope you understand that this best-case scenario you're referring to, this hope you want to cling to, is forced displacement of people who have lost their homes and who may never be able to return.)

but israel destroyed the border. people are still raising money to register their families for once it does open, but there is no guarantee of when that will happen, and most of the money ends up used so they can survive their current displacements within gaza.

there's a lack of feel-good stories because it's a genocide. that's all. this has been nothing but ten months of torture and slow death and closing every avenue for survival to gazans. now you know what that means.

anyway you should donate to e-sims for gaza because those are also running out