The antisemitic BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement has called for a boycott of Palestinian-Israeli blogger Nas Daily and his search for 80 new Arab content creators, claiming that the influencer's training programm is a cover for normalization with Israel.
Nuseir Yassin, better known by his Facebook name Nas Daily, has amassed nearly eight million followers on Facebook, over two million on Instagram and 1.6 million on YouTube since he started creating one-minute video clips in 2016.
Last month, he launched The Next Nas Daily, a paid opportunity for 80 Arabic language content creators to take part in a six-month training program run by the Nas Academy, which offers classroom and online courses teaching skills such as shooting video, editing and storytelling.
On Monday, the BDS movement posted a statement calling on “content creators and influencers in the Arab region to boycott the upcoming Nas Daily program, which aims to implicate them in normalizing relations with Israel and cover up its crime”.
The statement drew attention to the Nas Academy’s head of training, Yonatan Belik. Belik has served in the Israeli army, including in a public relations role motivating Israelis in high school to serve in the military. He was also involved in dialogue and co-existence activities, including competing in an Australian football “Peace Team” which consisted of Israeli and Palestinian players.
It also drew attention to Nas Daily founder Yassin himself, who has been frequently accused of whitewashing the Israeli occupation in his videos, and presenting equal sides to the Middle East conflict.
In a one-minute explanation of the creation of Israel in 1948, he said: “Some Palestinians left, some got killed and some stayed in their land. My people stayed.”
He went on to explain that he had chosen to accept the borders of Israel and Palestine and “move on”, because “in life there are better and bigger things to focus on than the name of a piece of land”.
The BDS statement also criticized Nas Daily’s training program for being supported by the New Media Academy, a digital training institution launched in June by United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.