Israeli vlogger Nuseir Yassin, who took the world of video content by storm with his Nas Daily channel, took a difficult personal question head-on when, at the NDTV World Summit, somebody asked him whether he’d have found the kind of success he enjoys today had his political opinion been something else.
After Nas Daily gave a presentation at the NDTV World Summit held in Delhi on the evolution of content creation and delivery, he agreed to take questions from the audience.
“You’re an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent. Do you think – you can say yes or no – the kind of success you have and the sort of political opinion, if you had a different political opinion, do you think you’d have been successful this way?” a member of the audience asked.
Nas Daily responded, “That’s a great question. Did I succeed because of my political opinion?”
“So, my friend, I succeeded despite my political opinion, not because of it,” Nas Daily said.
“And you have no idea how difficult it is. Israel is eight million people; the Muslim world is a billion people. There’s 200 million in Indonesia, 200 million in Pakistan, 100 million in Egypt, 100 million in Libya and Tunisia, another 200 million in Bangladesh, right?
“If I just make what is popular, and say ‘oh yeah yeah yeah free Palestine, I’m with everybody’, then I’d literally gain followers, I’d succeed more. I wouldn’t need security. But that is what I believe in. I believe that the truth is a little bit more nuanced, that it’s not black and white. It’s actually grey because unfortunately, I spent 13 years studying and living this conflict.
“So, somebody sitting in Pakistan or Indonesia telling me what to think about this conflict, I wouldn’t listen to him,” said Nas Daily, who rose to global fame with his Facebook page and YouTube channel, where he ran a project to create and publish a daily one-minute video for 1,000 consecutive days.
Each video, known as a “Nas Daily” video, featured him sharing stories, experiences, and insights from his travels around the world. He eventually launched a media company, Nas Daily Corporation.
“… My political opinion, which I make very clear, that we need two states for two people, but also we need to free Palestine from Hamas, from radicalism, from terrorism. I am not for that at all. I think Israel should exist. Every time I say the ‘I’ word, which is Israel, I lose followers. Every time I say the ‘I’ word, which is the country I am from, I lose brand deals.
“So, I succeeded despite being cancelled more than 10 times. Because the videos are just so damn good, you’re willing to listen to somebody from Israel even though you hate Israel so much. And the lesson here I think for everybody is – there is this amazing picture of one guy standing and a 10,000 people and the guy says ‘You’re all wrong’. I want everybody to think about this picture, ‘You’re all wrong’.
“What are you willing to stand in front of 10,000 people who disagree with you and tell them ‘You’re all wrong’? What is something you deeply believe in, that is deeply, deeply unpopular? For me, it is the Israel-Palestine conflict. But for you it is something else. It is a great exercise for every single person sitting here.
“What is something you deeply believe in that everybody around you still disagrees with? Yet for some reason you still believe in it. I think that is what you should make videos about,” Nas Daily said.
At the event, continuing NDTV’s legacy of pioneering media, NDTV World was launched; it aims to be a leading voice from Asia and India on the global stage.
