The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding part of the BDS movement, welcomes the news that PUMA won’t be renewing its contract with the Israel Football Association (IFA).
PUMA has been the target of a worldwide BDS campaign since 2018 over its support for Israeli apartheid oppressing millions of Palestinians. The IFA governs and advocates to maintain teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
Leaked internal messages revealed that PUMA was under tremendous pressure to drop the contract.
As Israel carries out its unfolding genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in occupied and besieged Gaza, killing over 18,000, including dozens of footballers, the boycott pressure was only increasing.
The years of relentless, global BDS pressure on PUMA and the damage to its image should be a lesson to all companies supporting Israeli apartheid, that complicity has consequences. It is also a lesson to the deeply complicit, Western-dominated FIFA, which continues to shield Israel from accountability despite the settlement teams violating its own statutes.
We thank the hundreds of grassroots solidarity groups, athletes and teams across the world who supported the call from 215 Palestinian teams to boycott PUMA.
This boycott win is a bittersweet victory as Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians continues. But it gives us hope and determination to hold all genocide enablers and apartheid supporters accountable until all Palestinians can live in freedom, justice and equality.
More information on the BDSAustralia Puma campaign here.
BDS Australia Joins the international #BoycottPuma campaign now in the week before Puma’s AGM to increase our pressure on Puma to end its complicity with Israeli apartheid and end all sponsorship of Israeli football teams on occupied Palestinian lands.
This year, as PUMA shareholders prepare to meet to discuss profits, Israel has just carried out yet another military assault on besieged Palestinians in Gaza.
These are not just tragic coincidences and they occur with PUMA’s complicity. They are a testament to just how often Israel’s apartheid regime kills Palestinians, young and elderly, athletes and artists, scholars and students, professionals and artisans, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. In just the past 15 years, Israel has killed more than 6,000 Palestinians and injured over 145,000.
The Israel Football Association operates in illegal Israeli settlements, on land stolen from Palestinians and Puma supports this association unlike other sports brands which have refused to support Israel’s illegal settlements and ongoing persecution of Palestinians.
Israel’s apartheid regime robs Palestinian land and resources; bombs Palestinian cities; demolishes Palestinian homes; incarcerates Palestinian political prisoners; restricts Palestinian access to water, farm land, and electricity; destroys Palestinian agriculture; and prevents Palestinian movement.
Palestinians are now facing the escalating violence and dispossession of Israel’s most far-right, racist and fundamentalist government ever.
PUMA claims it has a “devotion to universal equality.” That can’t be true as long as PUMA is complicit in Israel’s apartheid regime.
Palestinian football club Balata, whose player 16-year-old Seed Odeh was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, calls on new PUMA CEO to end complicity in Israel’s brutal apartheid regime.
Letter to PUMA CEO
Dear Arne Freundt,
We are writing to you as players of the Balata Youth Club, a Palestinian football team in the Balata refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank. We are one of the 235 Palestinian sports teams that are calling for international pressure on PUMA until it ends its complicity in Israeli apartheid.
As the new CEO of PUMA, we urge you to make a break with the past and ensure that PUMA lives up to its stated commitment to human rights.
As you know, PUMA is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association, which governs and advocates on behalf of teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
We are a team of Palestinian refugees. Our families were violently driven from their homes during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and have been forced by Israel to live in our overcrowded camp ever since, denied our UN-stipulated right to return. The illegal Israeli settlements that PUMA supports are the continuation of Israel’s ongoing drive to force Indigenous Palestinians from their land and constitute a war crime under international law. They are part of what Palestinian and international scholars, and organizations like Amnesty International and Human Right Watch, have documented to be a regime of apartheid, which is recognised as a crime against humanity.
Israel’s attacks on Palestinian life and liberty impact all aspects of our existence, including for our team, our main passion: playing football.
In May 2021, on the very same day that PUMA shareholders were meeting to talk about profits, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 16-year-old Saeed Odeh, a promising young player on our team. It was a devastating blow to the entire team and camp, but it also further strengthened our resolve to work to hold companies like PUMA, which help provide apartheid Israel with impunity, accountable.
Since then, Israeli soldiers have shot and killed many other young Palestinian footballers, including 19-year-old Mohammad Ghneim in April 2022, 18-year-old Thaer Yazouri and 14-year old Zaid Ghneim in May 2022, and 23-year-old Ahmed Atef Daraghmeh in December 2022.
As footballers, what we experience is also the reality of millions of Palestinians. The year 2022 was in fact one of the bloodiest years on record for Palestinians in the West Bank living under the brutal violence of Israel’s apartheid regime. Our camp has long been the target of constant night raids by armed Israeli soldiers, who kill our neighbors, including children.
As we brace ourselves for what Israel’s most racist and fundamentalist government ever has in store for us, we commit to continue the struggle for our rights and liberty, while holding all those killed in our hearts. And we know we are not alone.
We are inspired by the growing number of international sports teams that have responded to our call by ending or refusing sponsorship deals with PUMA as long as it remains complicit in Israeli apartheid. We are heartened by the more than 125,000 human rights supporters who have called on PUMA to “stop supporting the Israeli apartheid regime’s oppression of Palestinian people.”
This weekend, groups in dozens of cities around the world will join a Global #BoycottPUMA Day of Action at PUMA shops and offices.
As the new CEO of PUMA, you have a choice to make. PUMA can join the growing global movement to hold apartheid Israel accountable until it respects fundamental human rights, just as was done in the case of apartheid South Africa. Or PUMA can be on record for supporting a brutal apartheid regime that guns down young footballers. Millions will judge PUMA accordingly.
Make the right choice. End PUMA’s shameful contract with the Israel Football Association.
BDS Australia is joining groups around the world for the Global Day of Action on February 12 and regular rolling protests as we step up pressure on PUMA to ends its partnership with Israeli apartheid.
PUMA’s continued support for Israeli apartheid puts it squarely on the wrong side of history.
The year 2021 saw unprecedented support for Palestinian rights across the world of sports, as apartheid Israel escalated its violent oppression of Palestinians.
In record numbers, star athletes took courageous stands in stadiums and on social media to millions of followers, including footballers Riyad Mahrez, Paul Pogba, Mohamed ELNeny, and Benjamin Mendy, cricket stars Babar Azam, Rashid Khan, and Irfan Pathan, basketball players Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard and Layshia Clarendon, and boxing champs Amir Khan and Badou Jack, among others.
Olympic hopefuls Fethi Nourine and Mohamed Abdalrasoo renounced life-long dreams and withdrew from the games, refusing to compete with official Israeli representatives.
Teams, players, coaches and fans kept Palestinian rights front and center at the Arab Cup finals.
Let’s step up the pressure and make 2022 the year PUMA ends its partnership with Israeli apartheid.
Join the Boycott PUMA Global Day of Action, February 12.
PUMA sponsors the Israel Football Association (IFA), which governs and advocates on behalf of teams in illegal Israeli settlements.
In a leaked internal memo, PUMA admitted its celebrity ambassadors and business partners are increasingly questioning its support for Israeli apartheid.
More than 120,000 people have signed the SumOfUs petition urging PUMA to “stop its complicity with the Israeli apartheid state.”
A PUMA lawyer told us the #BoycottPUMA campaign is making their lives “miserable.”
Let’s help PUMA find its way over to the right side of history!
Join groups around the world calling on PUMA to drop the IFA.
Join rolling protests in Adelaide and Sydney – email [email protected] for details
PUMA has a window of opportunity to live up to its progressive image and stated “devotion to universal equality.” PUMA’s contract with the IFA ends in June of this year. Now is the time to act to convince PUMA to cut ties with Israeli apartheid.
The #BoycottPUMA coalition, which stretches from Auckland to Oakland, is launching regular rolling protests at PUMA shops, offices, and sponsored clubs. Vibrant protests at PUMA shops have succeeded in shutting them down. Join a protest near you or organize one in your area!
As Palestinians continue to struggle against Israel’s illegal land grabs, and companies like Ben & Jerry’s pledge to end involvement in illegal Israeli settlements, it’s time for all of us to step up the pressure on Puma to end support for Israeli apartheid.
Puma is worried about the growing boycott campaign.
In a leaked internal memo, Puma said Israel’s escalation of violence against Palestinians in May led to an increase in inquiries from its “business partners and ambassadors” about its complicity in Israeli apartheid. Global advocacy organization SumOfUs asked to meet with Puma about its support for illegal Israeli settlements. Not only did Puma accept, but even the agitated CEO joined!
As Palestinians continue to struggle against Israel’s illegal land grabs, and companies like Ben & Jerry’s pledge to end involvement in illegal Israeli settlements, it’s time for all of us to step up the pressure on Puma.
Join the #BoycottPuma Global Day of Action, September 18
ACTIONS
SIGN THE PETITION to demand these sports clubs support Palestinian human rights and sever their Puma sponsorships.
CALL ON PUMA SPONSORED AUSTRALIAN TEAMS to #BootPuma by taking a photo while holding a #BoycottPuma sign, post it on social media with the caption:
Until @Puma ends their complicity in Israeli Apartheid, I demand [INSERT @NAME OF CLUB] to #BoycottPuma and #PumaFam
REBRAND YOUR PUMA GEAR by writing “boycott” over the logo or tape over it, post a photo on social media with the caption:
I bought @Puma gear before I knew Puma supports illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land. Until Puma ends their complicity in Israeli Apartheid, I’m supporting Palestinian teams calling to #BoycottPuma and I will #RebrandPuma. Goodbye #PumaFam!
BOYCOTT AS A TEAM by organising a Zoom meeting with your sports team, and take a screen capture of each team member holding a sign that reads #BoycottPuma, post it on social media with the caption:
@Puma supports illegal Israeli settlement on stolen Palestinian land. Our team supports Palestine so we #BoycottPuma and #PumaFam
On International Women’s Day, as Puma launches the “She Moves Us” marketing campaign while supporting Israeli apartheid, Palestinian and international women in sports respond with #SheBoycotts.
Today, International Women’s Day, Puma is launching “She Moves Us,” a marketing campaign to “celebrate the women who have moved culture and sports forward.”
She Moves Us, but Puma supports illegal Israeli settlements forcing Palestinian women and their families from their homes. She Moves Us, but Puma supports Israel’s military occupation preventing Palestinian women athletes from traveling to matches. She Moves Us, but Puma supports Israeli apartheid, including medical apartheid denying millions of Palestinians vaccines during a pandemic.
Join us in celebrating Palestinian women in sports. Share the video of Palestinian athletes, including a player from the Women’s National Football Team, calling to boycott Puma until it ends support for Israeli apartheid.
Women in sports around the world are joining their Palestinian colleagues, from including a yoga instructor in France, acrobatic dancers in Italy, cyclists in the UK and running coaches in the US. They’re calling on Puma to end its support for Israeli apartheid that separates Palestinian families, demolishes Palestinian homes and arrests Palestinian children from their beds during night raids. Share the video of women in sports joining #SheBoycotts.
This website is maintained by BDS Australia, which is affiliated with the coalition of Palestinian organisations that leads and supports the BDS movement and by the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a BNC member organisation.
