Al-Majd Europe: Group accused of working with 'Israel' to displace Palestinians to South Africa

• A chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians from Gaza landed unexpectedly in South Africa.
• The group had paid a controversial organisation, Al-Majd Europe, which is accused of coordinating with 'Israeli' authorities.
• South Africa allowed the passengers to disembark after nearly 12 hours, handing them over to a local charity.
• Investigations are underway into what South Africa’s president described as an attempt to “flush out” Palestinians.

South African authorities say they were caught off guard on Thursday morning when a chartered aircraft carrying 153 Palestinians from Gaza landed at an airport near Johannesburg, with most passengers lacking the travel documents normally required for entry.

The arrival triggered nearly 12 hours of confusion as officials tried to understand how the group had left Gaza without exit stamps and why they had no clear plans for their stay in the country.

The passengers were eventually permitted to step off the plane after the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers volunteered to take responsibility for them.

According to border officials, the group included families, among them a pregnant woman, who appeared uncertain about their onward travel arrangements. Authorities later confirmed that 23 individuals left South Africa for other destinations, though they provided no further detail.

“These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi and came here,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday. He added that “it does seem like they were being flushed out” of Gaza, noting that the intelligence services were now investigating the circumstances surrounding the flight.

- The role of Al-Majd Europe -

The journey was arranged by Al-Majd Europe, an organisation under scrutiny for allegedly operating in coordination with 'Israel'. Activists argue that the group’s activities are enabling what they describe as an 'Israeli' campaign of forced population transfer.

Haaretz reported that the organisation is led by Tomer Janar Lind, a dual 'Israeli'-Estonian national. The newspaper said Lind collaborated with a unit in the 'Israeli' military tasked with moving Palestinians out of Gaza, the Voluntary Emigration Bureau, created in early 2025 under the 'Israeli' Ministry of Defence. According to the report, Lind acknowledged arranging flights but declined to share more details.

Oroub el-Abed, an associate professor at Birzeit University, said the pattern mirrors a longer historical trajectory of displacement. “This is not at all a random event,” she told Al Jazeera. “This is very much part of a long colonial pattern, very systematic dispossession of indigenous Palestinians that has been perpetuated by Zionist Israelis, and they want to empty the land from its indigenous people, using multi-faceted approaches.”

- A questionable organisation -

Despite claiming to have been founded in 2010, the Al-Majd Europe website appears to have been registered only in February of this year. The site lists no functioning phone number or office address, other than a vague reference to Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, and an automated bounce-back message from its listed email address suggests it may not exist. Several links on the website are inactive, and one “impact story” features a photograph of a Syrian woman whose image was actually taken a year later for an unrelated media report.

Many Palestinians told Al Jazeera that Al-Majd instructed them to make payments, ranging from USD 1,400 to USD 2,000 per person, including children, to private bank accounts rather than organisational ones.

- How passengers boarded the flight -

Families who boarded the plane say they were informed of their departure only a day in advance. One passenger, Loay Abu Saif, said he learned of the opportunity through a social media advertisement. He was told that travellers could bring only a small bag, a mobile phone, and some cash.

Passengers were transported by bus from Rafah to the Karam Abu Salem crossing. There, they were inspected before being moved to 'Israel’s' Ramon airport, but 'Israeli' authorities did not stamp their passports.

One individual interviewed anonymously said the process required prior coordination with the 'Israeli' military, “The … applicant must [have a young] family. [Then] the names are sent for security screening. Once that’s completed, and if the family is approved, they’re asked to pay,” he said. “There had been prior coordination with the Israeli army for the buses to enter Rafah… The process was only routine.”

The group then flew on a Romanian aircraft, transiting in Nairobi before arriving in South Africa.

- Previous flights and wider concerns -

Haaretz reported another similar flight on May 27, involving 57 Palestinians who were taken to Ramon airport via the same crossing. That group flew to Budapest before continuing to Indonesia and Malaysia.

Al-Majd Europe’s website also claims it transported a group of Gaza doctors to Indonesia for further training, though the authenticity of this post could not be independently verified.

Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman described Al-Majd as one of “Israel’s front organisations” and said Thursday’s flight was not the first to reach South Africa. A previous plane carrying more than 170 Palestinians landed on October 28, but authorities did not announce it publicly.

- Palestinian response -

In a statement, the Palestinian embassy in South Africa said the flight was facilitated by “an unregistered and misleading organization that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza, deceived families, collected money from them, and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Palestinians, particularly those still in Gaza, to be wary of networks seeking to relocate them under the guise of assistance, warning that such efforts align with 'Israeli' interests.