Update

50 Cities on Six Continents Join #BoycottPUMA Global Day of Action

#BoycottPuma was trending on social media, with a Twitter reach of 9 million, which has since nearly doubled to 17 million. Until PUMA ends its support for Israeli apartheid, the Palestinian-led boycott campaign is only destined to grow.

On Saturday, September 18, in more than 50 cities across six continents Palestinian rights supporters and sports fans participated in the #BoycottPUMA Global Day of Action. Just after the Global Day of Action, the twitter reach of #BoycottPUMA stood at a whopping 9 million. It has since nearly doubled to 17 million.

Protests were held at PUMA offices, PUMA-branded shops and retailers over the German sportswear company’s support for Israeli apartheid. Letters were delivered to store managers and leaflets distributed to customers.

In a widely shared campaign video, Palestinian athletes were joined by athletes from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America calling to boycott PUMA until it ends its sponsorship deal with the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA governs over and advocates on behalf of teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land. In addition, PUMA’s exclusive licensee in Israel has operations in the “no man’s land” surrounding occupied East Jerusalem, which is part of Israel’s illegal settlement-annexation enterprise. The boycott campaign was launched by more than 200 Palestinian sports teams.

More than 64,000 people have signed a recently launched petition by international advocacy organization SumOfUs calling on PUMA to end “its complicity with the Israeli apartheid state.” SumOfUs recently met with PUMA’s CEO and called on the company to follow the example of Ben & Jerry’s and end its involvement in illegal Israeli settlements.

On social media, the second most used hashtag along with @PUMA was #BoycottPUMA. The first was #PumaFam, PUMA’s own hashtag, which was turned against the company with the message “We’re not #PumaFam.” PUMA has, in fact, been forced to stop using its own hashtag. In third place was #AnimalCrossing, the hashtag for a new PUMA shoe in collaboration with the Nintendo game that was launched that same day. That’s right, #BoycottPUMA outdid PUMA and Nintendo.

Even Israeli media noted that “the hashtag #BoycottPUMA has also been trending on social media over the past few days.”

Chapters of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in the U.S. joined the campaign and the day of action. The Oakland Roots Radicals fan club launched a campaign calling on the U.S. soccer team to end its deal with Puma. The Porcomunas fan club of top Brazilian team Palmeiras also joined the campaign. In July, Black Lives Matter UK announced its support for the #BoycottPUMA campaign.

Teams in several countries are dropping PUMA, and PUMA’s celebrity ambassadors and business partners are beginning to raise ethical concerns.

Until PUMA ends its support for Israeli apartheid, the #BoycottPUMA campaign is only destined to grow. Contact us to get involved: pacbi@pacbi.org 

Below are tweets from the Global Day of Action.

 


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