For her report, Amos interviewed Randa Slim, a research fellow at the New America Foundation and a specialist in the Syrian opposition, who said: "I am not questioning their motives. But lives are at stake. Are they the right entity to do it. Is an NGO the right outlet?"
Answering press criticism at the time -- and giving an indication of its success in getting the opposition's view of the Syrian conflict to western journalists -- Avaaz stated it was "proud of 18 months of outstanding work by our staff and our community to support the voices of the"Syrian"people to reach the world in thousands of news articles assisted by citizen journalists we have supported or helped connect to the media."
Additionally, Avaaz commented, "Our community has donated almost $3 million for communications equipment, humanitarian aid and advocacy, and taken millions of actions including petition signatures, messages, phone calls and advocacy visits to press governments to take action to support the"Syrian"people."
It is not clear whether Avaaz has continued to provide the same sort of on-the-ground assistance to opposition forces and civilians as it was offering a few years ago, although it indicated at the time that it would continue such activities.
In Forefront of Many Progressive Causes, Avaaz's Advocacy for Military Actions in First Libya and Now Syria Seems Out of Sync
At first blush, the petition advocating for a Syria no-fly zone was a jolt to those not familiar with Avaaz's swing toward "humanitarian" military action in recent years. It seemed surprising because Avaaz has on other occasions called for negotiated peaceful solutions to various conflicts (including in Syria itself), and has been substantially in sync with other major progressive organizations on scores of U.S. and international issues in its nine years of existence.
Based on the overwhelming majority of the hundreds of Avaaz petitions I have seen over the years and in preparation for this article, I had assumed that the organization adhered to a basic principle of nonviolence in international affairs -- and it has even said so on occasion. But as one person who has had close connections to Avaaz noted to me: Although favoring diplomatic solutions, Avaaz does not rule out the use of military force, as its no-fly zone advocacy for Libya and Syria amply demonstrate.
On its website home page, Avaaz does not have an out-front display of its past campaign for a no-fly zone in Libya and its current one in Syria (and does not ever mention the ongoing disaster in Libya, or its support for a no-fly zone there). Rather, it focuses its out-front materials on its multitude of campaigns that involve nonviolent, political, diplomatic and public relations remedies. And even allowing for organizational self-hype, Avaaz has an impressive record of advocacy.
Through its petitions, street actions, billboards and newspaper ads, Avaaz has been highly visible on hundreds of issues worldwide -- including Palestinian rights, support for U.S. government whistleblowers including Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, campaigns for endangered species, etc. This is, after all, an organization that played a major role along with 350.org and other activist groups in organizing the massive People's Climate March in New York City in September 2014; it was also an organizer of the Global Climate March that was to coincide with the opening last November of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in France. That march was blocked by the French government in the aftermath of coordinated attacks attributed to ISIS that killed at least 130 people in Paris earlier in November.
Most -- if not all -- of Avaaz's campaigns seem right in line with current day activism of various groupings on the political Left. Even on Syria, an Avaaz campaign urging the United States to take in more refugees is in a more traditional humanitarian vein (that is, one that doesn't involve military hardware, needless to say). Typical was Avaaz's full, back-page color ad in the March 10, 2016 Politico headlined (in a play on a Republican presidential debate topic): "IT TAKES BIG HANDS (and a Bigger Heart) TO WELCOME 25,000 SYRIAN REFUGEES." The ad praised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for "showing the world what it means to have a giant heart" through Canada's acceptance and resettlement of 25,000 refugees in the previous four months -- "while America debates the size of candidates' hands" and has taken in fewer than 1,000 refugees. The ad urged President Obama and Congress to "do better, and show the world the size of our hearts, not our hands."
Also recently, in February 2016, more than 749,000 people signed an Avaaz petition that called on members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and France to "suspend all arms deals with Saudi Arabia until they end their assaults in Yemen and begin a genuine peace process." The campaign, which also included targeting MEPs with phone calls and personal messages, won a major success when the European Parliament voted on February 25 "for an embargo on arms sale to Saudi Arabia," in response to a United Nations report documenting 119 Saudi violations of international law in Yemen. Because European Union states are not bound by the action, Avaaz is continuing the campaign to get the European governments and the United States to follow the European Parliament's lead.
This Saudi campaign makes Avaaz's repeat advocacy for a no-fly zone -- first in Libya and now in Syria -- appear on initial impression to be way out of sync with progressive thought and most other Avaaz campaigns, and so much in line with neocon and "humanitarian interventionist" regime-change advocates.
Avaaz Has Long Favored No-Fly Zone in Syria, Based in Part on the Dodgy Sarin Gas Story
The organization's renewed campaign in the spring of 2015 for a Syrian no-fly zone was no sudden philosophical switch by Avaaz. In fact, as noted earlier, Avaaz had in 2011 campaigned for a no-fly zone in since-devastated Libya, and then turned its attention to a no-fly zone for Syria. It continued that Syrian effort in 2013-2014, while at the same time pushing for President Obama to get together with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to work out a diplomatic solution. That diplomacy petition netted 1,126,000 signers.
This diplomatic approach seemed more in line with what progressive individuals and organizations could get behind. But with no such diplomatic talks forthcoming, Avaaz then continued with its no-fly zone strategy.
Even in calling for negotiations, though, as well as in points raised in its on-line advocacy for a no-fly zone, Avaaz has regularly repeated a now-questionable allegation against the Syrian government -- made on numerous occasions by Secretary John Kerry and then President Obama. The U.S. leaders and war advocates used the allegation as a justification for war when it appeared that the United States was going to launch a bombing campaign against Syria in September 2013: Namely, that Assad's forces had used sarin gas on the civilian population near Damascus in August 2013. This charge that Assad was using chemical weapons on his own people has provided a continuing emotional selling point for Avaaz and other interventionists in the campaign for upping the military ante against the Assad regime.
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