On Saturday, 18 September, Samidoun Stockholm took to the streets in the shopping area of Skärholmen, Sweden, as part of the international day of action to #BoycottPuma. The action came as part of the global boycott campaign targeting the sportswear company, demanding it cease its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association. Palestinian football players and global sports justice activists have called on the company, which purports to follow a human rights mandate, to end its support for Israeli colonialism and apartheid.

The Puma-sponsored IFA is not only an institution of the Israeli colonial system built atop colonized Palestinian land. It also explicitly includes six teams based in Israel’s illegal colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Palestinian families have been expelled from their homes and lands to make way for these settlements and sporting fields. Indeed, Israeli settlements are war crimes under international law and part and parcel of the systematic Nakba targeting the Palestinian people for over 73 years.

Samidoun Stockholm members set up a table with Palestinian flags and Samidoun banners, and distributed leaflets to shoppers and passers-by, calling on them to join the Boycott Puma campaign. They received support and encouragement from many people who learned about the role of the sportswear company in supporting Israeli apartheid.

BOJKOTTA PUMA!

Samidoun Stockholm har varit i Skärholmen och spridit information för Internationella Dagen att Bojkotta Puma. Företaget deltar aktivt i att stötta israelisk apartheid genom att sponsra fotbollslag i de illegala och koloniala bosättningarna.#BoycottPuma pic.twitter.com/4qM61MWZIp

— Samidoun Stockholm (@samidoun08) September 18, 2021

The Samidoun table also featured posters and information in support of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, including Palestinian political leaders Ahmad Sa’adat and Khalida Jarrar. They also highlighted the six heroes of the Freedom Tunnel who escaped the high-security Israeli Gilboa prison and have become a global symbol of the Palestinian will to liberation.

Samidoun Stockholm is organizing to build solidarity for Palestinian political prisoners and the Palestinian liberation movement, working together with comrades in Gothenburg and Malmö. Check out the Samidoun Sweden website, or contact Samidoun Stockholm on Twitter or Instagram.

The following report is translated from the French original by Collectif Palestine Vaincra:

On Saturday, 18 September, at the Capitole metro station in Toulouse, France, around 20 activists and supporters of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, gathered to hold a Palestine Stand as part of the international day of action to #BoycottPuma.

Puma is subject to a global boycott campaign because it sponsors the Israel Football Association, including six teams from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. The campaign calls for a boycott of the sportswear brand until it stops providing financial and political support and sponsorship for Israeli apartheid and colonialism.

https://twitter.com/CollectifPV/status/1439218567744999425

In the heart of downtown Toulouse, despite the rainy weather, participants unfurled Palestinian flags and banners in support of Palestinian prisoners and the boycott of Israel. The organizers hung large explanatory banners and placards on the struggle to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Arab struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for 37 years, and the campaign to boycott Israel. These large banners and displays attracted the interest of many people passing by.

The Palestine Stand enjoyed a busy two hours, as many people visited to collect free leaflets and stickers, discuss the current situation in Palestine or sign up for the next initiatives the Collectif plans to organize. Organizers distributed almost 1,000 #BoycottPuma flyers and talked with passers-by. A large graffiti-style art banner was created during the stand in the middle of the pedestrian area, calling for the boycott of Puma, while speakers challenged the brand’s support for Israeli apartheid.

The stand also played Palestinian music, including songs praising the resistance and the self-liberated Palestinian prisoners of Gilboa prison. A young Irish man and a South African woman stopped at the stand, and both highlighted that the Palestinian people’s struggle is deeply connected to all peoples of the world fighting apartheid and colonialism.

Dozens of people also showed their support for the six Palestinian prisoners who liberated themselves from the Israeli Gilboa prison on 6 September 2021. Many people emphasized their pride at seeing the images of the escape from this high-security prison and the humiliation imposed on the Israeli occupation by Palestinians with only the tools at hand, despite its boasts of being a great military power and security leader. Everyone held up a spoon painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag, a new symbol of resistance!

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra organizes actions and initiatives in Toulouse every month to support the Palestinian people and their resistance for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. Contact the Collectif to get involved, or reach out to Samidoun Network to get involved in your local area outside of France.

Amid heavy rain, activists in Vancouver came out to support the #BoycottPuma campaign on Friday, 17 September, showing their solidarity with the six Palestinian political prisoners who liberated themselves from Gilboa prison and calling for the freedom of all detained Palestinians. The protest was organized by the Canada Palestine Association, BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, International League of Peoples’ Struggle Canada and the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Participants lined the street in downtown Vancouver in front of SportChek, a large sporting goods chain in Canada, highlighting the international #BoycottPuma campaign. Global sportswear manufacturer Puma is involved in violations of international law and human rights. Puma is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA). Not only is this a direct sponsorship of an institution of Israeli apartheid and colonialism throughout Palestine, the IFA even includes teams based directly inside Israel’s illegal colonial settlements in the West Bank of occupied Palestine.

Organizations and activists around the world have joined Palestinian football players and sporting justice advocates internationally to call for a boycott of Puma until it ends its sponsorship of the IFA. The Vancouver protest accompanied the launch of a letter to Puma Canada demanding it end its sponsorship of Israeli apartheid, which has already been signed by nearly 1,000 people across Canada.

The Vancouver protest also showed solidarity with the six Palestinian heroes of the Freedom Tunnel, who liberated themselves from Gilboa Prison on 6 September. While the self-liberated detainees were since re-arrested by the Israeli occupation, their bravery and creativity in liberating themselves by digging a tunnel to freedom beneath Israel’s heavily secured colonial prison has made them symbols of the Palestinian will to liberation despite all obstacles.

Protesters held up spoons, symbolizing the digging of the Freedom Tunnel. Actions around the world have highlighted the spoon as a symbol of Palestinian resistance and steadfastness, digging to freedom with the most humble of tools at hand. In Washington, D.C. and Copenhagen, Denmark, activists left hundreds of spoons outside Zionist embassies, symbolizing the 4,650 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and their ongoing drive for freedom.

Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, spoke about the current situation of Palestinian prisoners, highlighting the cases of the six administrative detainees, jailed by Israel without charge or trial, on hunger strike for their liberation, some for more than two months: Kayed al-Fasfous, Miqdad Qawasmeh, Alaa al-Araj, Hisham Abu Hawash, Raik Bisharat and Shadi Abu Aker. She emphasized that the #BoycottPuma campaign — and the boycott of Israel and complicit corporations overall — is also a means of supporting freedom and justice for Palestinian prisoners.

During the protest, demonstrators marked the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, when upwards of 4,000 Palestinians and Lebanese were killed in the Shatila refugee camp and the adjacent Sabra neighbourhood in Beirut by Lebanese fascist militiamen, whose invasion of the camp was overseen by the invading Israeli army, which encircled the refugee camp. The massacre was carried out on 16-18 September 1982, only days after the last Palestinian resistance fighters in Beirut left Lebanon under the auspices of a U.S.-brokered “ceasefire,” paving the way for the slaughter of Palestinian refugees.

Demonstrators also drew attention to the Canadian federal election upcoming on Monday, 20 September, slamming the major parliamentary parties for their ongoing support of or silence on Canadian complicity in Israeli war crimes. The Canadian BDS Coalition and Canada Palestine Association launched the #IVotePalestine campaign to hold politicians accountable.

They also linked the ongoing Canadian support for colonialism in Palestine to the colonial reality across Canada, where Indigenous peoples and nations continue to struggle against ongoing genocide, settler colonialism and resource extraction on their territories. Speakers expressed full solidarity with Indigenous liberation struggles across Turtle Island.

The demonstration ended with group photos of all participants holding up “Boycott Puma: Stop Sponsoring Israeli Apartheid!” signs, as well as all participants holding up the “freedom spoons” that symbolize Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for freedom. Despite the heavy downpour throughout the protest, participants distributed many leaflets to passers-by, engaged in meaningful conversations, and received strong support from both drivers and pedestrians walking by on the street.