#BoycottPuma

Calling PUMA to stop sponsoring Israel Football Association (IFA)

PUMA sponsors Israel Football Associations (IFA) which has football clubs in illegal Israeli settlements – on land stolen from Palestinians.

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Write to the CEO of PUMA, Bjørn Gulden

Write to the CEO of PUMA, Bjørn Gulden, urging him to remove PUMA as a sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA).

Edit the suggested letter below before sending.

Dear Bjørn Gulden,

As a customer of PUMA, I am writing to express my concern of PUMA’s role in the illegal occupation of Palestine.

Currently PUMA sponsors  the Israel Football Association (IFA), which manages several football clubs in Israeli settlements. Israeli settlements are built on stolen Palestinian land and are illegal under international law. As a sponsor of IFA PUMA is complicit in supporting illegal Israeli settlements and violating international law.

The United Nations and several Human Rights groups have deemed the Israeli settlements as illegal and a violation of international law. These settlements have a profound impact on Palestinian civilians. Since the settlements began over 50 years ago, Israel has demolished the homes of 27,000 Palestinians, making hundreds of thousands of Palestinians homeless and a displaced people to make way for Israeli communities. These illegal Israeli settlements and forcible displacement of Palestinians are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are considered a war crime.

As the CEO of PUMA, we request you uphold PUMA’s Code of Ethics which states objectives of complying with national and international trade laws. We hope PUMA’s code of ethics extends to international law.

Further, PUMA’s sustainability objectives includes “embedding Human Rights across our operations and suppliers, and positively impacting the communities where PUMA is present.” As the main international sponsor for the IFA, PUMA is present in the illegal settlements which, violates Palestinian Human Rights and thus contradicting PUMA’s Human Rights objective.

I would like to strongly urge you to discontinue PUMA’s sponsorship of the IFA which has football clubs on illegal Israeli settlements. It is clear that by sponsoring the IFA, PUMA is supporting the illegal settlements and the violating both international law and Human Rights. I hope under your leadership PUMA upholds international law and supports human rights.

Thank you

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Bjørn Gulden

Story

Calling PUMA to stop sponsoring Israel Football Association (IFA)

Puma is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA), which has several football teams in illegal Israeli settlements. Just as the Football Association (FA) is the governing body for football in England, the IFA is the governing body for football in Israel.

Six teams that belong to IFA are located in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Settlements are built up Israeli communities on stolen Palestinian land. Pre-existing Palestinian communities are forcibly removed from their homes and deprived of access to their land.

The United Nations and several Human Rights groups have deemed Israeli settlements as illegal and a violation of international law.

By sponsoring the IFA, PUMA is supporting illegal Israeli settlements which  violate Palestinian rights and  international law.

More than 200 Palestinian sports clubs have called on PUMA to stop supporting the IFA & violating international law. In 2018, Adidas announced it would no longer sponsor the IFA after receiving 16,000 signatures.

Let’s do this again and stop PUMA from supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine!

This image shows Israel's Home, Away and Goalkeeper football kits (with PUMA as their sponsor).

This image shows Israel’s Home, Away and Goalkeeper football kits (with PUMA as their sponsor).

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FAQ

What is the Israeli Football Association (IFA)?

The Israel Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for football in Israel (similarly to the FA in England). So this means the IFA organise a variety of association football leagues, Israel State cup and the Israel National football team within Israel.

What are Israeli settlements?

Settlements are built up Israeli communities on stolen Palestinian land. These pre-existing Palestinian communities are forcibly removed from their homes and deprived of access to their land.

Settlements are in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and in the Golan Heights. Israel started building settlements in 1967, after it illegally occupied Gaza and the West Bank.

Why are settlements illegal?

The United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice have all said that Israeli settlements on the West Bank violate the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Fourth Geneva Convention says that an occupying power “shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Israel has been doing exactly that, since occupying the West Bank in 1967.

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#PowerOffHP

HP supplies software and hardware to Israel, which is used at military checkpoints, watchtowers, outposts, fortified gates and the apartheid wall. The technology provided by HP makes it possible for the occupying forces to monitor and control the Palestinian people.

HP’s Basel System is the software that is installed within the biometric sensors that are in place throughout Israeli checkpoints. Palestinians are required to pass through these biometric sensors, powered by HP, whenever they wish to travel within the West Bank.

These biometric sensors, supported by HP technology, allow occupying Israeli forces to police, track and trace the movement of Palestinians.

HP also provides Itanium servers for Israel’s Aviv System. This technology allows Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority to monitor, classify and segregate the population within occupied Palestine through the Yesha database. This compiles information on Israeli citizens within illegal settlements, allowing the apartheid Israeli state to effectively promote its two-tiered system of laws which prioritise the Jewish population over the Palestinians. 

Furthermore, HP exclusively provides desktops to all branches of the Israeli military. By providing the Israeli army with the equipment to monitor the imprisonment of over two million Gazans, HP is an active accomplice in Israel’s illegal military blockade of Gaza.

In addition, HP also maintains and profits from the IT infrastructure of Israel’s prison system, which currently holds more than 4,500 political prisoners, including at least 150 children.

By providing the occupation forces with the technology that is used to monitor and regulate the movement of Palestinians, HP is supporting Israel’s brutal colonisation of Palestine.

A huge thanks to Unite the Union, the 1.2m members strong union, who are part of the campaign to oppose Hewlett Packard’s (HP) complicity in the occupation of Palestine. The union passed a resolution to stop any purchase of HP products until HP end their involvement in Palestinian human rights violations.

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#StopArmingIsrael

We are calling on the British government to stop funding Israeli war crimes by cancelling its arms export licenses to Israel. UK-made weapons are currently used to oppress Palestinians by using excessive and violent force, making their daily lives unbearable.

 

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#NotInMyFridge

 Central Bottling Company (CBC) is an Israeli manufacturer and distributor of soft drinks, dairy products and alcoholic beverages.

Coca-Cola profits from the occupation by working with CBC which sells its drinks in Israel. CBC has a Coca-Cola factory in Atarot illegal Israeli settlement. Israeli settlements are built on land stolen from Palestinians and are illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bans an occupying power from transferring its population to the area it occupies.

Currently, there are between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers living in at least 250 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

By having it’s Israeli franchise in an illegal settlement, Coca-Cola ignores international law and profits from the illegal occupation.

FOA is calling for Coca-Cola to cut ties with CBC.

Buying from companies which work in settlements such as Coca Cola means we as consumers are turning a blind eye to the illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

Here are questions we posed in 2014 when a Coca-Cola factory was opened in Gaza. These questions are completely relevant today. 

Some questions to ask Coca-Cola:

1. Where are these construction materials being purchased? We believe it’s Israel so isn’t Coca-Cola simply supporting the Israeli economy to a far greater tune than the Palestinian economy?

– Raw materials such as sugar will be purchased from Israel, thereby enriching the Israeli economy.

2. How much water is required to run the bottling plant and where will water come from?

– Palestinians in Gaza face a chronic shortage of freshwater, and rely on desalination plants. Reports from around the world show that communities living around Coca-Cola bottling plants are adversely affected by water shortages due to Coke’s demands on the water infrastructure.

– The World Bank has reported on the dire state of the water and sewage infrastructure in Gaza following Israel’s various attacks. Access to water is limited on average to 6-8 hours for 1-4 days a week for the population of Gaza.

In light of these statistics, how does Coca-Cola plan to operate its factory? And will the factory divert vital resources from Palestinian families, while drawing a profit from its products?

3. Where will the factory’ electricity supply come from?

-The only power plant in Gaza is only able to supply 30% of the population intermittently, leaving 1.2million Palestinians in darkness. Hospitals continue to run on emergency generators.

4. Will Coke be given preferential access to water and electricity, which will disadvantage Palestinian civilians and hospitals?

-The indications are that it will, and this is indicated by the passage of materials into Gaza to build the factory, while essential building materials for hospitals are barred.

5. As predicted Israel has now bombed the factory during the May 2021 bombardment on Gaza.

 What guarantees has Israel provided that it won’t bomb the Coca Cola factory? Israel has a track record of destroying businesses in Gaza. Before the blockade in 2006, 3,600 factories operated in Gaza. Now, there are less than a hundred.

– Israel bombed a biscuit factory in Gaza which employed 450 people, leaving them unemployed. Can Coca Cola guarantee that its 400 workers won’t be left in a similar position?

6. Coke’s investments in the West Bank and Gaza are dwarfed by its economic activity in Israel. At present, Coca Cola is profiting from the occupation by abiding by Israel’s occupation regime.

‘If Coca-Cola is serious about investing in the Palestinian economy, it will call for a lifting of the siege on Gaza so that its operation there can really flourish and provide Palestinians with more than jobs, but with future economic prospects – as it is doing for Israel.’ said Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs at FOA.

A related article worth reading: Click here

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