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Itch.io Palestinian Aid bundle has raised over $500k

Itch.io Palestinian Aid bundle has raised over $500k

A bundle on Itch.io raising money to help Palestinians out has raised over $500,000 to date.

At the time of writing, the offering has raised $532,753.90 from 57,738 people. Donations headed to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is providing food assistance to over one million people in Palestine.

The bundle is pay-what-you-want, with a minimum $5 cost, and features 1,019 items including Devolver's Pikuniku, Mini Metro and Nuclear Throne.

"Indie games are unique in that they can tell stories not seen in triple-A or other games," reads the blurb for the bundle.

"We pour our life experiences into our games and share a piece of ourselves with the world. Palestinian game developers are no different in this aspect, but have the added challenges of limited access to basic services, like clean water, electricity, medical care, and food security. They live under Israeli authority that discriminates and subjugates Palestinians to the point of persecution and apartheid, simply for being Palestinian. Furthermore, they develop games without all the resources that come with being in a western hub for game development."

The bundle will be live until Friday, June 11th. It was put up in the wake of Israeli military activity in Gaza in May of this year that saw 256 Palestinians killed and around 2,000 wounded. 13 Israelis were killed. 


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.