Screen capture from Facebook video Popular Palestinian-Israeli video blogger Nuseir Yassin posted a video on October 20 stating that that Al Jazeera falsely accused him of working with the Israeli government.
Yassin, who posts his videos on a Facebook page called Nas Daily, shared a clip from Al Jazeera’s Arabic Network alleging that Yassin uses “all the tools that the Israeli government provides him and he is part of their official propaganda program.”
“So what’s the accusation? It’s that Nas Academy, our new company, is training people to love Israel,” Yassin said. “That is comical! In reality, Nas Academy is a great new startup that we started to create new creators, to teach people how to make videos, to teach people how to tell stories, so they go and create their own videos and become their own Nas Daily!”
Yassin said that Al Jazeera promulgated their allegations throughout the Arab world by sponsoring its affiliates to promote the accusations in order to generate “fear and hatred.” He added that Al Jazeera tends to broadcast differing messages to its English and Arabic audiences.
“To the English world, they say, ‘Let’s remember the Holocaust and never repeat it,’” Yassin said. “To the Arab World, they say, ‘Did the Holocaust really happen?’”
He also pointed to how Al Jazeera English promotes gay rights while Al Jazeera Arabic doesn’t cover news involving LGBTQ+ rights.
“It’s two stories for two different audiences,” Yassin said. “And you wonder why the Middle East is full of hatred and anger.”
Yassin argued that Al Jazeera can operate in this fashion because the Qatari government funnels money to the news outlet every year. He pointed to the Department of Justice’s decision in September to require Al Jazeera to register as a foreign agent. Al Jazeera condemned the move as an apparent precondition to the Israel-United Arab Emirates peace agreement.
The video blogger also noted that what differentiates Al Jazeera from other government-sponsored news outlets like BBC and Deutsche Welle (DW) is that the BBC and DW don’t hide their government affiliations like Al Jazeera does. Yassin also said that his company does work with governments and tourism boards, “but we promote tourism and love, not politics and hate. And we definitely do not work with the Israeli government.”
Yassin concluded the video by pointing out that Nas means “people” in Arabic, meaning that he and his company “put people above politics and governments no matter who comes in our way. We cannot let them stop this message.”
Al Jazeera did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/videos/be-careful-of-aljazeera/3535110433193633/
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