CAEF Letter to Avaaz Re: Use of Avaaz platform to spew Jew hatred and lies

Dear Avaaz Management, Media and Customer Relations;

You really cannot claim to be a platform for human rights causes when you support the abuse of some people's rights, spread lies and hatred, and attack an entire national group. Sport is often a bridge builder but you have allowed Jew haters to mount a campaign to keep the Israel soccer team out of the World Cup.

Without verifying the statements on the campaign, Israel out of the World Cup, statements akin to Nazi claims against Jews in WWII, you have facilitated and repeated Jew hatred. You have put the Jewish community globally at risk. Are you not aware of rising antisemiitism which has already led to the murder of innocent Jews on the streets of US cities, the firebombing of synagogues, threats and harassment of Jewish children?

Presumably, you believe and multiply the lie of starvation in Gaza, of Israel targeting and bombing hospitals and of the purposeful murder of Gazan women and chlidren. All have been proven to be untrue. It really is time that Avaaz did the little bit of work to confirm such claims.

You would find the following:

1. Humanitarian Realities: Gaza’s population has grown since the conflict began. Israel facilitates substantial aid, including increased caloric supplies and polio vaccinations, actions fundamentally incompatible with genocidal intent.

2. Israel’s Civilian Protections: Israel issues evacuation warnings before military operations, a practice antithetical to genocide. Conversely, Hamas, which initiated this war and holds hostages, could end the conflict instantly by releasing them but refuses to negotiate.

3. Fabricated Narratives: Allegations of starvation rely on manipulated images. Active markets and restaurants in Gaza contradict claims of systemic deprivation.

4. Complicity of International Actors: Many humanitarian agencies fail to denounce Hamas’s terrorism or advocate for peace, instead amplifying anti-Israel narratives that perpetuate a cycle of violence for political ends.

You should also be accountable for the error of omission as well as for being complicit in spreading hatred. You can easily verify there is no starvation and that the amount of food that Israel has sent in since the war which Hamas started, has surpassed the daily amount sent in before the war. You can readily find videos showing that Hamas kills its own people when they try to access the food provided by the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which replaced the prior system under which Hamas stole much of the food and resold it on the Black market, or hoarded it for its fighters.

Pictures of emaciated kids have all been found to be kids with genetic disabilities and are being held by their well nourished parents. Hardly a scene for starvation. We even find images of the fakery being set up by Hamas for western onlookers, and willing fake journalists, those employed by Hamas.

You might consider that the overwhelming majority of Gazans voted for Hamas, supported October 7, would vote for Hamas again, sheltered weapons, took pay to slay money, kept hostages, learned to hate Jews, taught others to hate Jews, murdered, raped, beheaded the elderly, threw babies in ovens, or stole on October 7.  Not one Gazan helped free the innocent Israeli hostages.  Most Gazans would vote to repeat October 7.  That doesn’t leave many Gazans left to be innocent.

Your campaign to isolate Israeli athletes, punish Israel, and put politics in sports is despicable. You are also ignoring real human rights tragedies, proving that Black Lives Don't Matter!! The greatest evil is being carried out against Christians in Nigeria, Congo, Sudan and other African countries where Islamists kidnap, slaughter, rape and burn whole villages, behead church goers while in a services. Consider Yemen where millions are starving due to the Islamofascist terrorist Houthis. Where is your petition to stop the Chinese from participating in the World Cup and other international sports since they hold 1,000,000 Muslim Uygurs captive? Where is your campaign to cancel participation of Russia in all international sports since they invaded Ukraine and kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children and Russia is most certainly not sending in food to feed their enemy, nor dropping leaflets to tell civilians to get out of the way before they bomb their communities?

There is more than a double standard at play. Avaaz is quite simply fueling antisemitism. The history of this ancient hatred is being played out on your platform. What ever is evil, blame the Jew,and so you are fulfilling the role of Islamofascists, blame the only Jewish state and ignore the perpetrators of the actual evil. Hamas is responsible for every death on both sides of this conflict.

Respectfully,

Andria Spindel

Executive Director

Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation