Author: Belen Fernandez
Affiliation: A contributing editor at Jacobin magazine.
Organization/Publisher: Middle East Eye
Date/Place: September 22, 2020/Doha, Qatar
Type of Literature: Article
Word Count: 1510
Link:https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/nas-daily-and-new-normalisation
Keywords: Israel, UAE, Blogger
Brief:
The author shares her disgust of Nuseir “Nas” Yassin, whose daily 60 second videos have extended the social media influencer’s financial perks by promoting normalization with Israel. While “Nas” travels the world on an Israeli passport with his Mormon girlfriend, he peppers his hotel stays and poolside breakfasts with sound-bite political commentary that attempts to polish the dirty face of the occupation and exploitation of Palestinian and Arab youth, all the while avoiding to discuss the human rights violations and other crimes committed by the authoritarian regimes that he visits. The author highlights the absurdity and manufactured cheerfulness of this new type of mole that appears on various social media sites, funded by regimes—most recently the United Arab Emirates—to promote and market acceptance of occupation by and normalization with Israel as a country. The Palestinian-Israeli blogger’s brand “Nas Daily” is an example of what a “sell-out” content maker looks like, which has drawn much criticism so far as including being boycotted by the BDS movement.
By: Taqwa Abu Kmeil, CIGA Research Assistant