On Saturday, 24 June, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra participated in a new international day of mobilization to call for a boycott of athletic equipment manufacturer Puma, sponsor of the Israeli Football Association, which includes 6 teams in illegal settlements in the West Bank of occupied Palestine.
Faced with this scandalous reality, hundreds of thousands of people around the world and more than 200 Palestinian sports clubs are calling for a boycott of the German sports brand until the company ends its political and economic support for the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people and the Zionist colonization of Palestinian land. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, organized a poster campaign in several districts of Toulouse, France, and in front of several stores that sell Puma clothing and activewear.
The Collectif also distributed flyers in the Bagatelle neighborhood emphasizing “that by participating in the European championships, by having major international brands as sponsors, Israel is developing its policy of normalizing apartheid, colonization and occupation.” CPV published several posts on social networks to raise awareness about the growing campaign to boycott Puma.
The next day, during the Palestine Afternoon in Toulouse, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra also highlighted the #BoycottPUMA campaign through several games, such as a shot on goal and a shake-up. A fun way to raise awareness of the importance of these campaigns in support of the Palestinian people.
In many countries and cities, similar initiatives took place, such as in Lille, Manchester, Kuala Lumpur and Osaka. The Israeli occupation has murdered more than 170 Palestinians since the beginning of the year and announced the intensification of the process of colonization and ethnic cleansing; amid this context, protesters around the world have denounced Puma’s complicity with this policy. More than ever, we must build a grassroots campaign to boycott Israel and complicit international corporations in order to lend meaningful support to the Palestinian resistance in its struggle for return and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea!
