In the latest development of Palestinians arriving in South Africa, a group called Al-Majd Europe is in the spotlight for orchestrating the two known journeys from Palestine to South African soil. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the unusual nature of the arrivals, noting that “it does seem like they were being flushed out” of Gaza. Gift of the Givers founder Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman echoed this concern, describing the movement as “forced migration of people” and suggesting it represented a process of “ethnic cleansing”. Sooliman alleged that a previous plane arrived with more than 170 Palestinians. 

But who is Al-Majd Europe, and why are people calling it a scam or sketchy?

We do a deep dive using current investigations and our own into the site and organisation. 

First, we are going to look at the WHOIS/domain registration.

The site uses HTTPS (valid SSL), but the domain registration is private/hidden (registrant details protected). It’s worth noting that this is typical for recently registered or privacy-protected domains, but it is a huge red flag when combined with donation collection. 

Multiple automated site-trust checks list the domain as low trust / suspicious and note the owner info is hidden and the site has low traffic. According to ScamAdviser, the trust score is “rather low.” 

Investigations reveal that the organisation says the site was registered through a low-cost registrar (Namecheap was named in reporting) and that the domain is new relative to the organisation’s claimed history. In simpler terms, the domain age does not match the site’s “founded 2010” claim. That mismatch is a major credibility gap.

Now we are going to examine the registration of “Al-Majd Europe” / “Al Majd Europe.

The site claims that it was “founded in 2010 in Germany” but our independent checks and investigative reports do not verify a German legal registration.

Additionally, investigations from Haaretz, Al Jazeera and Palestine Chronicle report that they could not find official records or that the organisation is actually registered elsewhere (reporting points to Estonia / shadowy registrations).

Reporters and investigations are consistently flagging credibility problems.

Al Jazeera investigations raised doubts about Al-Majd Europe’s operations — reporters were unable to verify the listed office, found broken links and inconsistent site content, and found evidence people were asked to pay into personal bank accounts rather than a verified organisational account. 

Haaretz found no clear record matching the charity’s claims in the places it said it was registered and linked the operation to a person with Israeli/Estonian connections; described the group as “shadowy.”

Other outlets such as Palestine Chronicle, SunnaFiles, Ynet, DailySabah, Kenya Times, ZNet, etc echo the same problems — inability to verify physical office, reports of donors wired to personal accounts, AI/stock imagery used for staff/beneficiary photos, and quick emergence of the organisation around contentious evacuation flights. 

Reports indicate that Palestinians paid up to R100,000 to them to fly them out of the country. This is an issue because, as we have established, the organisation is not to be trusted and has raised red flags.  

Multiple reports and firsthand posts indicate donors were asked to pay by bank transfer into individual/personal accounts and some evacuees said they paid roughly $2,000 per person via bank apps to individual accounts. Direct payment into personal accounts instead of a registered charity bank account is one of the strongest red flags for scams. 

The website’s donation functionality and links have been reported as broken or unreliable. This undermines trust as legit NGOs maintain functioning donation systems and receipts.

Additional suspicious indicators

So we have covered financial issues, domain registration and no clear link to Germany, but in 2025, we have another issue that we are all familiar with by now: AI.

AI / stock images are reportedly being used as photos of staff/beneficiaries. Even if not AI, using stock images is a credibility problem when an organisation claims it does real humanitarian work.  Think of any charity organisation: they would have branding whether it is in the form of a t-shirt or a hoodie.

What they do have is what appears to be a plaque saying “Al-Majd Europe Humanitarian organisation’ founded in Germany, with the Dome of the Rock in the background, which many confuse with Masjid Al-Aqsa.

This is in itself noteworthy because in their About Us, they went out of their way to say their headquarters are in Jerusalem, near the third holiest site in Islam (being the Al-Aqsa mosque), yet their photos show something completely different.  

In what mirrors the above, the organisation’s contact/address claims (e.g., Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem) could not be independently verified by reporters.

Their listed email bounced or was unresponsive. 

IOL

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