Author: cpaadmin

Keeping Puma out of our Shopping Carts

New update on Puma campaign – Puma Swaps One Complicit Israeli Distributor for Another.

(Puma responded quickly to our December 9th letter, which over 25 organizations in Canada had endorsed. Following is our reply to them, as well as a copy of their letter.)

December 10, 2020
Bob Philion
President, Puma North America

Thanks for your quick reply to our letter. However, our main concern about Puma sponsorship of the Israel Football Association IFA remains unanswered.

Puma’s current exclusive licensee in Israel, Delta Galil Industries, has been listed on the United Nations database of companies that are complicit in, or profit from, illegal settlement activity. So it is encouraging to hear that the contract with Delta Galil expires at the end of 2020 and there is a new distribution contract with Al Srad Ltd, that “does also not have any operations or branches in settlements”.

However, this does not change the fact that Puma is still a sponsor of the Israeli Football Association IFA. An association that you acknowledge in your letter includes teams from illegal settlements. Having the Puma logo proudly displayed on the IFA website connects your company with this egregious violation of international law. To claim that Puma does not directly put jerseys on the backs of players in those specific illegal settlement teams in no way alleviates that complicity.

In today’s global economy, a company’s brand is its currency. Your brand is tainted by your involvement with the IFA. As we said in our original letter, “we will not purchase Puma products until the company stops these unethical practices, and until the Puma logo is no longer featured on the website for the Israel Football Association”. Until then, we are keeping Puma out of our shopping cart.
________________________________________
Puma’s Response to our Initial Letter:

BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association

With regards to your recent memo, please know that PUMA does not support football teams in settlements nor does its Israeli distributor have branches in settlements. 

PUMA’s local distribution partner Delta Galil supplies the Israeli National Teams with PUMA branded football equipment to compete in international competitions. PUMA’s contract with its Israeli distributor Delta Galil will expire at the end of 2020. The new distribution contract is with Al Srad Ltd, a company of Irani Corporation. Al Srad Ltd. does also not have any operations or branches in settlements. It is the decision between our new distributor and the Israeli Federation to mutually agree whether to continue the cooperation or not.

PUMA does not have any other connection or association with any other Israeli football club team – neither in mainland Israel nor in settlements. The six football clubs (Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, Bikat HaYarden, Kiryat Arba, Givaat Zeev and Oranit) which play in different leagues of the IFA and are based in the West Bank are not equipped with PUMA products, but by other sports brands. 

PUMA continues to support and outfit athletes from all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation and national origin. As a brand concerned only with the power that Sport has to bring people together, PUMA does not support any political direction, political parties or governments. We welcome the opportunity to help everyone compete in sports no matter who they are or where they are from.

Sincerely, 
Bob Philion
President  
PUMA NORTH AMERICA | COBRA PUMA GOLF | 10 Lyberty Way | Westford, MA. 01886  

Organizations in Canada tell Puma to end complicity in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights

Check out the newest action in the #BoycottPuma – Give Puma the Boot campaign. Over twenty-five organizations in Canada, including unions, student associations and social justice groups, endorsed our letter to Puma calling on them to end their sponsorship of the Israel Football Association.
(le français suit)

December 9, 2020

Mr. Maguire, Senior VP, Canada
Mr. Philion, CEO, Puma North America

People in Canada have recently come together to send the message that we should all be concerned about Puma’s involvement in violations of international law and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Folks from Vancouver to Calgary to Toronto have gone on social media to express their concerns and to say #BoycottPuma until it stops legitimizing Israeli apartheid.

Why? Because Puma is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. In addition, Puma’s exclusive licensee in Israel is Delta Galil Industries, which has branches in those same illegal Israeli settlements.

We join with other consumers in Canada and around the world in letting you know that we will not purchase Puma products until the company stops these unethical practices, and until the Puma logo is no longer featured on the website for the Israel Football Association. The first sentence in your “Code of Conduct” is “Puma respects human rights”; we call on Puma to live up to that commitment.

Sincerely,
BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association

Endorsed by:
Canadian Union of Postal Workers CUPW-STTP
Vancouver & District Labour Council
Bayan Canada
BDS Québec
Canada Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights
Canadian BDS Coalition
CanPalNet (Canada-Palestine Support Network)
Independent Jewish Voices Vancouver
IJV Vancouver Youth Bloc
International League of Peoples’ Struggle ILPS Canada/Ligue internationale de lutte des peuples
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement pour une Paix Juste
MidIslanders for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association OPRA
PAJU Palestinian and Jewish Unity/Palestiniens et Juifs unis
Palestine House (Palestinian Canadian Community Centre)
Palestine Solidarity Working Group-Sudbury
Palestinian Youth Movement – Toronto
Palestinian Youth Movement – Vancouver
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Regina Peace Council
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – Queen’s University
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-SPHR McMaster
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC
Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill
Sulong UBC
University of Toronto Students Against Israeli Apartheid
Young Communist League Vancouver

____________________________________________

Monsieur Maguire, Vice-président senior, Canada
Monsieur Philion, PDG, Amérique du nord

De nombreuses personnes au Canada se sont récemment réunies pour signaler que nous devrions tous nous inquiéter de l’implication de Puma dans des violations du droit international et des droits légitimes du peuple palestinien. Des citoyens de Vancouver à Toronto, en passant par Calgary, ont utilisé les médias sociaux pour exprimer leurs inquiétudes et dire #BoycottPuma jusqu’à tant que l’entreprise cesse de légitimer l’apartheid israélien.

Pourquoi? Parce que Puma est le principal sponsor de l’Association israélienne de football (IFA), laquelle comprend des équipes dans les colonies illégales d’Israël situées sur les terres palestiniennes occupées. En outre, Delta Galil Industries, titulaire exclusif de la licence Puma en Israël, possède des succursales dans ces mêmes colonies israéliennes illégales.

Nous nous joignons à d’autres consommateurs au Canada et dans le monde pour vous informer que nous n’achèterons pas de produits Puma tant que votre entreprise n’aura pas mis fin à ses pratiques contraires à l’éthique, et tant que le logo de Puma restera affiché sur le site Web de l’Association israélienne de football. La première phrase de votre « Code de conduite » est : « Puma respecte les droits de la personne ». 

Nous appelons Puma à se montrer à la hauteur de cet engagement.

Cordialement,

BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association

Update – Puma responds, and we reply: Still Keeping Puma out of our Shopping Cart!


Appointing Irwin Cotler is the crown jewel in Canada’s anti-Palestinianism

by Marion Kawas

Pro-Palestine activists in Canada have been overloaded in the last few months with challenges surrounding the dangerous definition of Anti-Semitism promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association IHRA.

First, Bill 168 in the Ontario legislature was set for committee hearings when the government hijacked the whole process by adopting the IHRA through an Order in Council. Then, just last week, the Trudeau government appointed none other than Irwin Cotler, a well-known pro-Israel advocate, as Canada’s Special Envoy for Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Anti-Semitism. Cotler will also head Canada’s delegation to the IHRA and will work to “advance the implementation of this definition across the country and its adoption internationally.”

Clearly all appeals to rational dialogue over the chilling effects of adopting the IHRA have fallen on deaf ears. Canada’s largest province and its federal government have drawn the proverbial line in the sand. And activists now need to step up and intensify all of their other campaigns, from #StoptheJNF to #FreePoliticalPrisoners to BDS, as the most effective response.

Many academics and activists, be they Jewish, Palestinian or concerned supporters, have written scholarly and lucid articles on why the IHRA definition is flawed and confusing. It is very likely that pro-Israel advocates know full well the contradictions in this definition and that it would probably never stand up to a legal challenge. But that’s not the point. The point is that they have succeeded in not only defining and confining the parameters of pro-Palestine discourse, but have also successfully appointed themselves as the arbiters of what will constitute acceptable criticism of Israeli policies.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs readily pointed out earlier this month that the IHRA definition notes that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” But who decides what criticism should be allowed or not? In Canada, it will now be Irwin Cotler, the man promoted by the Israeli media as “…one of the staunchest defenders that Israel has around the world”.

The man who PM Trudeau personally referenced when he publicly condemned the BDS movement. The man who sent his own submission to the International Criminal Court, arguing against an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz described him at the time this way: “Additional requests were submitted to the court by Irwin Cotler, a senior jurist and former justice minister of Canada who is considered very pro-Israel…”.

Surely, no-one with the slightest understanding of Middle East issues should expect Irwin Cotler to be anything other than anti-Palestinian and blatantly in favour of Israel in his new role. The Israeli media are abundantly clear on who he is and what he has stood for over the decades.

Last year, the Trump administration also appointed a Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism, Elan Carr. Although Cotler and Carr come from vastly different backgrounds, both hold very similar views on what is considered “anti-Semitic behaviour”; both are intent in singling out the BDS movement and as Carr succinctly put it, consider “hostility to the State of Israel as the anti-Semitism of today”.

And then we have the infamous 11 accompanying IHRA examples. Woe to the less informed amongst us who tries to navigate what is acceptable or not. One example cites that “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is racist behaviour. I agree with that, but then what do we make of Israel’s Nation State law which openly declares that “The State of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People”. How can most folks make sense of such contradictory declarations? They can’t and will probably end up concluding its better to say nothing and just avoid the issue altogether. Which seems to be the whole intent of the IHRA in the first place. If you can’t rationally convince most people that criticism of Israel is somehow anti-Semitic, then the next best thing is to just put a tight lid on the whole debate.

In fact, there are many examples of white supremacists that support Israel who consistently engage in anti-Jewish racism, but they are embraced by the current Israeli government. Why? Because it has become clear that is okay to be anti-Semitic as long as you’re pro-Israel. Which adds another dangerous layer to this whole affair, and seriously compromises the struggle against racism.

That struggle must also firmly acknowledge that Zionism is a form of racism, just as deadly as any other. For too long, progressive forces in Western countries have treated Zionism as a “lesser form” of racism, not as pernicious or aggressive. But this attitude is based mostly on an inherent bias against, and ignorance of, the lived experience of Palestinians; an attitude that has been exploited and manipulated for many years by both the Israel lobby and Western governments.

Adopting the IHRA definition is just one example of the attempts by those governments to shield Israel from criticism and divert attention from its war crimes, apartheid policies and racism against the Palestinian people. This process dehumanizes the Palestinian people by denying their existence, their culture and their narrative; it also criminalises any Palestinian for even talking about their memories and experiences. This amounts to institutional racism against a whole nation and its people.    

Activists in Canada need to re-assess strategy going forward. Trudeau’s appointment of Irwin Cotler is a turning point, a watershed moment, a blatant rebuke of any sense of a fair-handed approach by the Canadian government to the Palestinian cause. And it must be responded to for what it is, a slap in the face for all those who believe in peace with justice for Palestine.

(Photo from protest against Irwin Cotler’s Speech, Montreal, June 2019)

Another version of this article appeared in Mondoweiss.

Canada’s anti-Palestinianism on display again at UN

And here we go again. Canada voted just this week to continue its “proud tradition” at the United Nations in favour of Israeli illegal settlements, war crimes and apartheid. Out of seven resolutions at the UN Fourth Committee, Canada voted against five and abstained on two.

Details on how Canada voted at the Fourth Committee:

1. “Assistance to Palestine refugees” [A/C.4/75/L.9]: Adopted by a vote of 153 in favour – 2 against – 12 abstention including Canada.

2. “Operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East” [A/C.4/75/L.10]: Adopted by a vote of 151 in favour – 5 against including Canada – 9 abstention.

3. “Palestine refugees’ properties and their revenues” [A/C.4/75/L.11]: Adopted by a vote of 151 in favour – 6 against including Canada – 8 abstention.

4. “Work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories” [A/C.4/75/L.12]: Adopted by a vote of 72 in favour – 13 against including Canada – 76 abstention.

5. “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan” [A/C.4/75/L.13]: Adopted by a vote of 142 in favour – 7 against including Canada – 13 abstention.

6. “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” [A/C.4/75/L.14]: Adopted by a vote of 138 in favour – 9 against including Canada – 16 abstention.

7. “The occupied Syrian Golan” [A/C.4/75/L.15]: Adopted by a vote of 142 in favour – 2 against – 19 abstention including Canada.