PSNA is celebrating the news of a breakthrough in the BDS campaign against sports brand PUMA which has announced it is ending its sponsorship of Israeli soccer teams in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
“This is the latest example of the success of BDS” says PSNA National Chair John Minto.
Our own modest efforts here in New Zealand were part of this international pressure – just last weekend we had an in-store protest at Rebel Sports in Christchurch against PUMA.
“We saw many victories like this in the international campaign to isolate apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. It is now gaining momentum against apartheid Israel”
As the Palestinian-led BDS movement explains, it is a bitter-sweet victory with genocide and ethnic cleansing taking place now in occupied Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
“However it underlines the reality that there is no stronger force than the power of people acting together to defeat racism and apartheid” says Minto.
“When governments fail to act – such as the New Zealand government refusing to utter a single word of criticism of Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians – people around the world can organise together to defeat racism and apartheid”
This is encouragement for us to redouble our efforts against two other BDS targets: HP and Marvel.
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
