Itch.io’s negligence causes delay in Crips for eSims for Gaza Bundle

A charity bundle on itch.io is currently nearing $50,000 raised for Palestinians in Gaza facing starvation under Israel’s total blockade — funds collected entirely in spite of the digital platform’s lack of communication. A year ago, Rascal published an investigation detailing the company’s pattern of delays in communication and payment for both sellers and charity organizers.

According to corroborating documentation provided to Rascal from the organizers of the Crips for eSims for Gaza Bundle, not much has changed. Communication failures from itch.io starting in January delayed the bundle’s launch, and only through consistent effort on the part of the organization was a second iteration of the bundle made public on April 26. As of the time of publication, Itch.io did not respond to a request for comment.

A. Koszis, a disabled artist and volunteer for the charity and organizer of the currently funding itch.io bundle, was initially pursuing game development but began organizing labor during their limited free time. “After what's escalating in Gaza, I had to switch over to volunteer work,” said Koszis in an interview with Rascal. “War and genocide is a huge disabling event. We owe the people there as much action as we can.” Crips for eSims for Gaza is a cohort of disabled individuals organizing these fundraising efforts, enabling those who may not be able to meet the physical demands of on-the-ground organizing to contribute towards the Palestinian cause. 

As Gaza enters its third month of total blockade at the orders of Israel’s Netanyahu administration, and during the nineteenth month of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, starvation and disease have become an unavoidable reality for the two million residents of the besieged region. While institutions throughout the United States have cracked down on protest against this violence, individuals and organizations like eSims for Gaza are still attempting to organize support for those suffering.

“The short pitch of it is we work with Connecting Humanity, which is a small team of people who are distributing eSIMs in Gaza currently,” said Koszis. “So this allows people like emergency aid providers and journalists and anyone [else] to have internet or a signal on their phones. We maintain those eSIMs via donation money so that the people working there in Gaza do not have to worry about losing that phone signal.” 

Internet connection allows those in Gaza to maintain life-saving communication, as well as convey the state of the bombardment with the outside world — an essential aspect of garnering international support and to document the attacks on the occupied land as the IDF targets journalists and humanitarian workers. According to the organization’s website, “more than 14,000 eSims have been sent since December 25, 2023 and more than 10,000 have been used or are currently being used to date.”