Image via Getty PUMA has announced it will end their partnership with the Israel Football Association once their current contract expires in 2024.The German sportswear brand has produced Israel’s national team kits since 2018, and has faced criticism for the sponsorship ever since with many pro-Palestinian communities calling for a boycott of the brand via the ‘Boycott, Divest, Sanctions’ (BDS) movement.This criticism has intensified following violence in the Middle East over the past two months, which has seen a two-month bombing campaign on Gaza and the West Bank kill 18,000 Palestinian people.In a statement released today, PUMA say the decision was taken in 2022 and is unrelated to current protests. Instead, they say the split is down to PUMA wanting to pursue a “fewer-bigger-better strategy” when it comes to national teams.However, there’s no doubt PUMA executives will have been aware of the criticism they’ve faced having been a target of the BDS movement since 2018, after replacing adidas as the IFA’s sponsor. 130 Palestinian sports clubs penned an open letter to the brand and 16,000 people signed a petition urging adidas to sever ties with the federation in June 2018. The Three Stripes ended their partnership with the IFA a month later. Though it took nearly six years for PUMA to follow in adidas’ footsteps, there is no doubt that the boycotts and public protest played some role in the decision to part company with Israel. Change is always possible.