Dear followers, your 'influencers' seem ignorant about Israeli crimes
9 Min Read
The world of 'influencing' and 'content creation' seems to be tone-deaf to "Israel" killing, bombing, and assaulting the people of Palestine.
Let's set some ground rules: When having an enemy, not any enemy, but a mortal one, killing your family, bombing your house, and robbing you of your most basic needs as a human being, you cannot simply co-exist with this enemy in the same place.
So a mere handshake or even a simple eye contact will eventually initiate some sort of disruption unless you are 'okay' with the crimes that are being committed and these crimes sit well with you.
Now let's delve deeper; consider this enemy, "Israel", the occupation that was 'established' on the backs of Palestinians and formed due to "Israel's" horrific massacres in Palestine.
This is called normalization
Moving on to another set of rules: When a country that used to consider "Israel" an enemy in the past, intentionally decides to build diplomatic relations with "Israel", this is known as "normalization agreements". When a single diplomat steps foot in "Israel", that is called normalization. When direct talks happen, that is called normalization. When an athlete faces another Israeli athlete in sports tournaments, that is called normalization. And when a group of Arab influencers pose for photos at an event where they are taking lessons on content creation from an Israeli, this is called normalization.
'Influencers' & 'content creators' for "Israel"
Behind the scenes of endless selfies, likes, and comments, over 3000 'influencers' and 'content creators' attended and spoke at the '1 Billion Followers Summit' in Dubai, where the Israeli 'activist' Nuseir Yassin was a co-host.
The event included dinners and celebrations, and the contributors 'lit a fire in the desert'. Sounds fun doesn't it?
Nuseir Yassin is known for his pro-"Israel" stance regarding the Palestinian struggle for freedom. He intentionally disregarded, through his self-described 'humane videos', the Palestinian Nakba, the Palestinian suffering, and most importantly, Israeli war crimes.
Nuseir is vocal about the 'two-state solution' in Palestine and believes that Palestinians and Israelis should 'co-exist'.
In his last video about the Palestinian struggle, Yassin disregarded the Palestinians' right to self-defense and called them 'attacks' on "Israel". Nusseir Yasin usually introduces himself as "Arab-Israeli".
Read More: Nas Daily: When 'entrepreneurs' NAS-TILY become Israeli propaganda
Applying the before-mentioned set of rules, these Arab influencers' existence in the same room and event as Nuseir, interacting, laughing, taking notes, and speaking with him, is called normalization.
Keynotes into normalization
Looking into the "agenda" of the Summit on the website, various topics were discussed during the two days event.
Starting from day one, after the opening ceremony, the first speaker was Nuseir Yassin.
Yassin's topic, as it appeared on the website, was "Why Creators Will Conquer The World". What was said during each speech or lecture cannot be found on any platform, given that the event was 'exclusive'. On the Summit's YouTube channel, few videos are posted and most of them are teasers or wrap-ups of the event.
Users can rarely find any content that is related to what Nuseir or other speakers said. Is censoring part of the summit? Or is it because some attendees were not supposed to be there?
In one of these short videos that were published by a particular news outlet, Nuseir was seen talking with the audience and giving a lecture about content creation with a picture displayed for them that says “And if you look like me… GOOD LUCK..”
In the video, Nuseir was filmed talking and lecturing the crowd about ‘history’ and how ‘throughout history, people could only impact 150 people…”
Why does normalization always have to be 'fun'?
For additional background information on this topic, Nas Daily is a popular page that publishes videos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Each platform has a vast number of followers.
On its Instagram account, Nas Daily writes the following slogan: 'We Bring People Together' at the top of its page.
Interestingly, on its Youtube platform, the '1 Billion Followers Summit' posted a teaser titled "1 Billion Followers Summit - The Expo of Content Creation". The video says 'connecting 1 billion people under the same roof.'
In another 'shorts' video on YouTube, the Summit posted a video that says 'The world of social media gathers under one roof!'
Sounds familiar?
The vlog-styled videos are identical to those of Nas Daily. The scripts, the tone, even the shooting style, and the enthusiasm, all give the same vibes.
The Summit is powered by New Media Academy, the same academy that funded and embraced Nas Daily for its videos where they whitewash Israeli crimes.
On the Summit's LinkedIn, one can see how employees in Nas Daily actually worked for this big event. Parikshit Sachdeva appeared to be Nas Daily's social media manager as he was a community manager in the '1 Billion Followers Summit'.
Another example is: Nizar Salman worked for Nas Daily as a project manager for 1 year and 9 months. Salman was an event lead for 8 months at the Summit.
The contributors to the event added the 'mystery celebrity speaker' into the event to make it more 'exciting'. The speaker turned out to be the former TV presenter and comedian Trevor Noah.
Yassin was the one who hosted Noah during a debate that many attended and listened to.
In addition to Noah, many international YouTubers attended the event such as Jordan Matter and Matpat. The speakers came from the US, Canada, Poland, Lebanon, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and many more.
When it comes to Arabs, activist Saleh Zaghari, appeared in a video justifying his participation in the event by saying that he was seeking to provoke those in charge of the conference by raising the Palestinian flag in the event.
However, after Zaghri was heavily criticized by social media activists, he later apologized and admitted that he made a mistake by attending this event.
مشاركتي في مؤتمر المليار متابع .. pic.twitter.com/KcZU2PdbGB
— Saleh Zighari (@SalehZighari) December 5, 2022
The other normalizing event
While the '1 Billion Followers Summit' happened over the course of two days, 3 and 4 December, on 5 and 6 December, a different event took place in Abu Dhabi. The two events may look different on the surface, regarding the objectives and topics, but both meet at the same end; normalization with "Israel".
Around 300 decision-makers and representatives of 47 international space institutions attended the first edition of the Abu Dhabi Space Debate this month. The event focused mainly on topics related to 'space sustainability, accessibility, and security'.
All looks normal, doesn't it?
After his unwelcomed visit to Bahrain, and after he met with UAE's President Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan at his private home in Abu Dhabi, the Israeli President Isaac Herzog took part in the Space Debate where he made a speech.
Herzog, during his speech, urged to "move onwards and upwards, not with the competition of a cold war," but rather with "our warm peace." The Israeli occupation's President called for countries to "collaborate in here on the blue planet we call home."
The UAE was the first Gulf state to normalize ties with "Israel", kicking off a wave of normalization that saw Bahrain, Sudan, and Morrocco swept by the tide.
The Israeli occupation and the United Arab Emirates have long been exchanging visits, drawing more and more criticism for the Arab nation that abandoned the Palestinian cause.
Spot the 'influencer' in the audience
After the Space Debate took place, many Lebanese activists strongly condemned the presence of a Lebanese filmmaker and content creator.
Lebanon is among the countries that still have a strong stance regarding the normalization agreement with "Israel" and considers "Israel" as an occupation.
Lebanon criminalizes normalization with the Israeli occupation in its law. The Lebanese criminal code, the 1955 Boycott Law, and the Code of Military Justice all say that any type of contact between Lebanese and Israeli citizens is prohibited; punishment can range from a few months in prison to death.
Many Twitter activists argued that the Lebanese filmmaker, Kazim Fayad, should not be present at an event that the Israeli President spoke at. After the backlash, Fayad had to issue a statement regarding the matter.
The filmmaker claimed that he was not able to leave the hall where the event was taking place and that the only reason he was attending was that he had booked interviews with several news outlets.
It is worth mentioning that the speakers of the event were published ahead of the ceremony, in addition to the many news outlets that reported that Herzog arrived in the UAE to attend the Space Debate. It does not stop here. Looking closer into the event itself, which was posted in its entirety on YouTube, there was a 40-minute break between the end of the last debate that took place and Herzog's arrival at the event, thus, giving Fayad and other so-called "influencers" plenty of time to dodge a possible encounter with the enemy's President.
Read More: Serious Concerns as Lessons in Normalization Hit Lebanese Schools
Ignorance or turning a blind eye?
Now one cannot help but wonder: do the influencers realize what they are really 'influencing'?
The real question here is whether the millions of followers, that these 'influencers' have, know what subliminal messages they are intaking on daily basis, through swiping, liking, and commenting on those influencers' social media stories, videos, and pictures.
In both events, Israelis were present. In both events, Arabs were present. And in both events, prominent figures, TV presenters, and social media influencers were present. Should any questions be raised? The answer is yes.
