Pro-Palestine protestors confront Nas Daily at Japan meetup

A group of pro-Palestinian activists in Japan protested at an event hosted by popular Israeli-Palestinian vlogger Nuseir Yassin, more popularly known as Nas Daily, accusing him of whitewashing Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

Yassin, a travel content creator who rose to popularity through a series of one-minute videos nearly a decade ago, organised a meetup in Tokyo on Saturday for his fans and followers, where he was confronted by demonstrators.

“He's not just another content creator, he’s a willing brutal tool of Israel’s propaganda machine,” one of the demonstrators said. Others held up signs stating: "We don't need influencers who are complicit in genocide" and "Jews for a free Palestine".

In a widely shared clip, some of the meetup attendees can be seen shouting at the demonstrators, while others voiced their support.

“I came here for the event, but after listening to you and listening to him right now, I’m not on his side,” one of the eventgoers said on camera.

“Basic humanity is to not laugh when somebody’s dying. He’s making a joke out of it.”

Meanwhile, Yassin can be seen taking photos with fans, and saying in one instance: "My country is Israel."

Yassin also released a video from his point of view, saying that he was “excited to announce” that he had experienced his first pro-Palestine protest at a Nas Daily meetup. 

“I told them I agreed with them. I also want a Free Palestine from Hamas. Free Palestine from terrorism. Free Palestine from radical religion,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “They disagreed. They just wanted a Free Palestine from Jews.”

MEE reached out to Yassin for comment. He said: "Here’s my statement: you’re fake news 🤭."

Palestinians of Japan, the group that organised the protest, said: "We believed that [Yassin's] viewers clearly are interested in what’s going on in the world, but that Nas was depriving them of the truth."

"In order to be globally informed, you have to know about the horrifying realities too, such as the live-streamed genocide in Palestine. So we came to not only protest him, but to educate people and raise awareness about what’s going on," the group continued in a statement to MEE.

'Gaslighting people who are suffering'

Several pro-Israel commenters applauded Yassin, with some calling his post “brave” and others thanking him for being “on the right side of history”.

😂now you’re ‘officially’ on the right side of history. Well done, brave man 🙌🏼🇮🇱

— Lisa P🎗️🇬🇧🇮🇱✡️ (@LisaPS30) October 14, 2024

However, other users accused Yassin of lacking empathy for other Palestinians and expressed anger at his position on the war.

“Pro-genocide grifter @nasdaily might keep getting rich and famous as he labors in defense of the slaughter of his kin, but he too will fade into oblivion and his legacy will rot in the dustbin of history,” a user wrote.

Other users accused him of being disingenuous and “gaslighting" those who are suffering.

"Nobody wants Palestine free from Jews, that's absurd, and a lie. What people want is Palestine free from apartheid and occupation and [an] end to a genocide," wrote one user. 

"Hamas was born out of the occupation, and certainly its actions on oct 7th have been bad, but then what to say of Israel, that has committed actions that are 100 times as heinous?"

Nas, do you really think that gaslighting people who are suffering is the way to go? I have been following you for years, this shouldn't be the way you are? Or have I been mistaken all along?

Nobody wants Palestine free from Jews, that's absurd, and a lie. What people want is…

— Fabio (@FabioA) October 14, 2024

This is not the first time Yassin has come under fire for his stance on Israel and Palestine.

He has been accused over the years of whitewashing Israel's occupation and equating the experiences of Israelis to those of Palestinians under occupation.

Meanwhile, Yassin has defended himself as an advocate of peace and coexistence.

In a now-deleted minute-long video about the creation of Israel in 1948, he said: “Some Palestinians left, some got killed and some stayed in their land. My people stayed.”

He added that he had chosen to accept the borders of Palestine and Israel and "move on" because “in life there are better and bigger things to focus on than the name of a piece of land”.

Following the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel, the blogger stated his support for Israel, and said that he identified as an Israeli-Palestinian instead of a Palestinian-Israeli.

"Israeli first. Palestinian second. Sometimes it takes a shock like this to see so clearly," he wrote.

"I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel... Palestine should exist too as an independent state. And I hope to see the country thrive and become less extreme and more prosperous."

In 2020, the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement called for a boycott of the blogger, saying that the UAE-backed training programme he launched for Arab content creators was a cover for normalisation with Israel.