Although some Maccabi fans did sing anti-Arab chants and committed a few acts of violence, Dutch police records confirm that they were largely the victims of what one pro-Palestine activist enthusiastically described as a “Jew hunt”.
According to the Israeli embassy, hundreds of Maccabi fans were attacked. A total of 59 people were arrested, 10 of whom were Israeli.
The official report by Amsterdam’s prosecutor and police made clear it was the Israeli club’s supporters who were the victims of “groups.. looking for a confrontation”.
Prada named the Palestinian rapper, born Marwan Abdelhamid, its brand ambassador last week.
Posting an Instagram video showing the rapper modelling its clothes last week, the fashion house said: “Prada ambassador Saint Levant attends the Prada spring/summer 2027 menswear fashion show in Milan, at Fondazione Prada’s Deposito.”
In the video he can be seen sporting a pendant in the shape of pre-1948 Palestine, sparking criticism from some pro-Israel commentators.
Saint Levant in the Prada video donning the pre-1948 pendant (Image: Prada)[Missing Credit]
Israeli writer and speaker Hen Mazzig claimed that the pendant "erased" his country.
“If an Israeli, or any Jew, wore a pendant that included Gaza, the outrage would be instant. But erasing Israel, “from the river to the sea,” gets a luxury campaign,” he said.
During his performance at US pop festival Coachella in 2024, Saint Levant addressed the then-ongoing war in Gaza, saying: “Coachella, my name is Saint Levant and I was born in Jerusalem and raised in Gaza … as I hope all of you are aware, the people of Gaza have been undergoing a brutal, brutal genocide for the past six months. And the people of Palestine have been undergoing a brutal occupation for the past 75 years.”
Saint Levant’s hits, include Nails, From Gaza, With Love and Very Few Friends.
In one of his songs, titled 5am in Paris, he raps: “My body in Paris. My heart in Gaza.” He told Arab News that it was “about exile. A feeling that us Palestinians know a bit too well.”
Speaking to Arab News about his childhood, he said: “The actual cultural makeup is my mom is half-French and half-Algerian. My dad is Serbian, half-Palestinian. And they actually both grew up in Algeria. But they decided, in the early 90s, post the Oslo Accords, that Palestine was going to be free.
“So they went back, my dad went to live in Gaza in the early 1980s. And my dad actually built a hotel there and that’s where I grew up,” he said.
“For everyone, childhood is very meaningful. And for me, it was a juxtaposition because I remember the sound of the drones and the sounds of the bombs. But more than anything, I remember the warmth, and the smell … and the taste of food and just the odd feeling of soil.”
Prada and Saint Levant were contacted for comment.
