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YSL Criticized for Featuring Palestinian Rapper, ‘Vile Antisemite’ Saint Levant in New Campaign
Saint Levant in the new YSL video campaign for “Saint Laurent Sushi Park Paris.” Photo: Screenshot
The French luxury fashion house Saint Laurent (YSL) is facing backlash for featuring Palestinian rapper Saint Levant, who has expressed support for violence against Israelis, in a campaign that debuted on Monday for the brand’s new restaurant.
On Monday night, YSL premiered a new video campaign for “Saint Laurent Sushi Park Paris,” an omakase dining experience in Paris opening on Feb. 21 that YSL developed in collaboration with Chef Peter Park of Sushi Park in Los Angeles. The partnership marks the debut of Sushi Park’s first permanent location outside of Los Angeles. In the video campaign, Saint Levant, whose real name is Marwan Abdelhamid, acts as a driver that takes passengers, including Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon, to the new restaurant.
YSL posted the video on its social media accounts, and the comments sections quickly filled with pro-Israel supporters vowing to boycott the brand for featuring who they described as a known antisemite in its new campaign. Social media users shared the hashtag “boycottysl,” and the organization StopAntisemitism asked the brand “Saint Levant is a vile antisemite – why are you partnering with him?” On YSL’s X account, one user wrote, “what are you thinking? these are antisemites representing your company.”
“You guys partner with Jew haters?” said one X user. Another wrote, “ANTISEMITISM is the evil. Stop hatred!”
Saint Levant has French, Algerian, Palestinian, and Serbian roots. The 24-year-old was born in Jerusalem, grew up in the Gaza Strip, and moved to Amman, Jordan, at the age of seven. During a performance in November 2024 in Amsterdam, Saint Levant publicly applauded violent antisemitic attacks in the city that targeted fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv. “Quick little shoutout to our Moroccan brothers for what they did the other day,” the rapper told the audience at his concert. “Because it’s not the first time that they come to a land that’s not theirs and start some s—t. So thank you for taking care of business.”
His comments were criticized by a pro-Israel supporter on TikTok who accused Saint Levant of promoting “gross anti-Jewish rhetoric.” The rapper responded by again repeating his support for the premeditated and coordinated attack against Israelis in Amsterdam. He told the pro-Israel activist, “keep crying,” and wrote, “Thank you Morocco.”
Last month, Saint Levant attended a fashion show for YSL’s men’s winter 2025 collection. In 2023, he was chosen as Dior’s first fragrance ambassador for the Middle East and in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar that year he said about his activism: “Everything I do is really focused and based on the Palestinian cause and struggle. It’s 80 years of occupation, oppression, displacement, and ethnic cleansing ”
YSL has previously collaborated with outspoken critics of Israel, including model Bella Hadid for its fall 2024 collection. Singer Dua Lipa, who has accused Israel of “genocide,” is the face of the YSL Beauty fragrance Libre Flowers & Flames, which launched in the summer of 2024, but she has also promoted other items for the brand.
The post YSL Criticized for Featuring Palestinian Rapper, ‘Vile Antisemite’ Saint Levant in New Campaign first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.