Boycott movement celebrates as Puma ends sponsorship of Israel team

 

A boycott movement meant to pressure brands against supporting Israel is celebrating the sportswear company Puma's decision not to renew its sponsorship of Israel's national football team.

"BDS works!" said the Malaysian chapter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement on X (formerly known as Twitter).

However, Puma said the decision was made before the latest round of violence in Israel and Palestine, which has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians and more than 1,400 Israelis.

"While two newly signed national teams - including a new statement team - will be announced later this year and in 2024, the contracts of some federations such as Serbia and Israel will expire in 2024," Reuters reported Puma's spokesperson as saying in a statement.

The spokesperson added the decision to not renew its sponsorship of Israel's football team was made in 2022 as part of the company's new "fewer-bigger-better strategy".

The BDS campaign against Puma kicked off in 2018, over the company's support of the Israel Football Association (IFA).

The BDS campaign said this was because the IFA "governs and advocates to maintain teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land".

In a statement, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding part of the BDS movement, said it welcomed the news that Puma won't renew its contract with IFA.

"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," it said.

Unlike other boycott calls, the BDS movement focuses on a smaller number of companies and products "for maximum impact", inspired by the anti-apartheid boycotts against South Africa.

They include companies that "play a clear and direct role in Israel’s crimes and where there is real potential for winning", it said.

They include consumer boycotts of eight consumer brands and all goods made in Israel, and divestments from 10 companies. - Mkini