Girl Scouts threaten to sue troop over Gaza fundraiser

A Girl Scouts troop in St Louis has been threatened with a lawsuit over a fundraiser they planned to raise money for children in Gaza.

Nawal Abuhamdeh, the troop leader and mother of a 10-year-old member, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that many of the girls in the troop have been heartbroken by the death and destruction in Gaza.

Instead of selling Girl Scout cookies this year, they decided to do a community service project. The children came up with the idea to sell homemade bracelets to benefit the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Ms Abuhamdeh said.

More than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed — 13,000 of them children — in Israel’s brutal siege on Gaza since 7 October, when 1,200 people in Israel were killed in attacks by Hamas.

“I’m grieving. We are all grieving,” Ms Abuhamdeh said. “We literally couldn’t muster the energy to sell cookies.”

After spreading the word about the fundraiser on social media, the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri emailed Ms Abuhamdeh, saying the troop was required to “stay neutral” and could not engage in “partisan politics.” They directed her to remove mentions of the Girl Scouts from communications about the fundraiser.

Ms Abuhamdeh pushed back against the organization, noting how deeply the girls cared about the project, and reassuring them that they were not taking a political stance.

She also pointed out that similar fundraisers had been permitted for victims of the war in Ukraine, and asked why this one was being treated differently.

“We condemn any innocent lives taken — whatever religion they are, whatever ethnicity they are,” she said.

In response, the organization said the troop had failed to follow “appropriate policy, procedures and approval processes as outlined in our volunteer and leader training documents” — and threatened to sue if they did not comply.

“Unfortunately, if this direct violation of the organization’s governing documents and policies continues, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri and Girl Scouts of the United States have no other choice than to engage our legal counsel to help remedy this situation and to protect the intellectual property and other rights of the organization,” the email reportedly said.

After speaking with the parents of the other troop members, they decided to officially disband from the Girl Scouts, saying the organisation was not living up to its mission of teaching girls to “make the world a better place.”

In a statement to The Independent, a spokesperson for Girl Scouts of the USA said each of their regional councils operates “as their own 501c3 nonprofit organization,” adding that the national organisation “never considered taking and did not take legal action against this troop or the leader.”

According to organization policies, the spokesperson said, troops “may not fundraise for purposes other than Girl Scouting,” though this rule may be temporarily lifted “in extraordinary circumstances.”

“Fundraising restrictions related to the Israel-Gaza war were lifted for a period from October 10, 2023, through January 10, 2024, giving Girl Scouts the opportunities to proactively fundraise and contribute in their capacity as Girl Scouts to charities listed on Charity Navigator, including the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund,” the spokesperson said.