Al-Majd defends Gaza flights as government flounders

After days of explosive speculation and political theatre, Al-Majd Europe, an organisation that has been facilitating paid evacuations of Palestinians out of Gaza, has finally broken its silence. 

Its statement comes in the wake of the controversial arrival of 153 Gazan refugees in Johannesburg last Thursday, 13 November. 

The organisation has come under intense international media pressure and scathing scrutiny over its secretive and opaque operations. It stated on 18 November that it was breaking its silence after “96 hours of being defamed in international media”, and it accused its critics of seeking to “strip the people of Gaza of their freedom of choice”. 

Al-Majd described itself as an association founded by refugees who had fled “dictatorial regimes” including Hamas rule in Gaza, motivated by a desire to assist people living under “oppressive authority” and “daily suffering”. 

It said it operated discreetly because Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel’s Shin Bet all had the capacity to obstruct its work or target its volunteers globally. According to Al-Majd, the fees paid by travellers covered only part of the evacuation cost, with philanthropic donors subsidising the rest and volunteers carrying the operational load. 

The organisation denied any connection to Mossad or any intelligence agency, saying that its only contact with Israeli authorities was to co-ordinate exits, a process it said was required for “every single person who has left Gaza since the start of the war”. It accused the Palestinian Authority of trying to block its activities by halting passport issuance; lobbying countries to deny landing rights; and intimidating travellers. 

Al-Majd rejected claims that passengers were left abandoned or without documents, insisting that all received proper visas, permits, and accommodation arrangements. Its stated mission is to offer Palestinians “real pathways to a better future”, which it says will continue until a formal safe-travel mechanism exists. 

The controversy began on 13 November, when a chartered aircraft carrying 153 Palestinians landed in Johannesburg after a complicated journey via Israel’s Ramon Airport and Nairobi. Israel’s Co-ordination of Government Activities in the Territories said Gazans in need of medical treatment and caregivers, as well as Gazans with dual citizenship, exited Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing and Ramon Airport only after a third country – in this case South Africa – “confirmed” that it would receive them, and valid visas had been submitted for every traveller. 

Passengers were held for more than 12 hours in grim conditions on the tarmac after Border Management Authority officials deemed their documentation insufficient. Images and accounts of their plight ignited outrage, and immediately turned the arrival into a political flashpoint. 

This wasn’t the first such flight. Al-Majd had already facilitated an earlier movement of Palestinians out of Gaza. On 28 October, a previous charter flight carrying about 176 Palestinians landed in Johannesburg. (See story on this page.) 

That group disembarked without incident, passed through immigration without delay, and entered the country without drawing attention. The second flight, however, detonated into a national spectacle. 

Anti-Israel groups, led prominently by Dr Imtiaz Sooliman of Gift of the Givers, claimed that the travellers had been “abandoned” by Israel because their passports carried no exit stamps. Israel doesn’t use exit stamps. 

Sooliman, whose team intervened to assist the stranded passengers, has continued to accuse Israel publicly of ethnic cleansing, and claims that the evacuees were pawns in a larger campaign to depopulate Gaza. His comments were echoed uncritically by government officials. 

Senior government officials delivered increasingly confusing statements. President Cyril Ramaphosa insisted that the group had “somehow mysteriously been put on a plane” and suggested that Palestinians were being “flushed out”. International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola on Monday, 17 November, went further, describing the arrival as suspicious, and warning of a broader agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza. While calling for a thorough investigation, neither offered any explanation of who had approved the landings; how the documentation issue arose; or why the two similar flights were treated so differently. 

Documents confirm that the aircraft was issued an official South African landing permit. A landing permit doesn’t grant passengers entry into the country, but it does confirm that the flight was declared, an application was submitted, details were known, and South African authorities approved its landing. This was no “mysterious” or unauthorised arrival. Somebody in government, or high up with influence, knew about it and signed off on it. Why border officials appeared blindsided remains unexplained. 

Meanwhile, Sooliman simultaneously blamed South Africa’s Departments of Home Affairs and Transport for mishandling the arrival and causing chaos. He has emphasised that he had no extensive prior knowledge of the operation before the aircraft landed. In a saga full of shifting stories, Sooliman’s own explanations now raise further questions about what he knew, when he knew it, and how information flowed among various actors. 

Interestingly, he has since positioned himself and Gift of the Givers as the central command structure controlling every aspect of the refugees’ lives, from their whereabouts to their legal status, while invoking conspiratorial threats from “foreign agencies” to justify his unprecedented level of authority and gatekeeping over this group of refugees – especially amid international scrutiny during the G20 Summit. 

An investigation by Haaretz identified Al-Majd as the organiser of multiple paid evacuations of Gazans to destinations including Indonesia and South Africa. The investigation linked the operation to an Israeli-Estonian businessman, and revealed that Palestinians were charged between $1 500 (R25 785) and $2 700 (R46 413) per person via WhatsApp to secure a place on these flights. It also noted that the organisation had no registered presence in several of the jurisdictions where it claimed to operate, raising troubling questions about transparency, oversight, and legitimacy, leading to further media investigations. 

Every South African stakeholder – government departments; border authorities; civil-society groups; even Gift of the Givers – appears to be scrambling to cover their backs as the inconsistencies pile up. 

Here is what’s clear: the passengers volunteered to leave Gaza. They registered, paid, were vetted, and left of their own free will. Why South Africa became their destination remains unclear, beyond the fact that a 90-day visa is easy to obtain. Yet South African border officials appeared to have been completely unprepared. 

Amid all the noise, one simple truth risks being lost: these individuals wanted to leave. They went through the process, paid for the service, were screened by Israeli authorities, and boarded voluntarily. 

Everything around them – the contradictory government messaging; the opaque organisers; the sudden outrage; and the political posturing – suggests a much bigger story in the shadows. 

The full truth of why South Africa became part of their evacuation route remains murky, contested, and politically combustible.