Nuseir Yassin
Early life and education
Yassin was born in Arraba, Israel, to an Arab Muslim family of Palestinian descent. He is a Palestinian Arab with Israeli citizenship. Yassin had called himself Palestinian-Israeli as "I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second." By August 2022 however he'd described himself in a Dubai interview as Israeli-Palestinian and in October 2023 tweeted "I view myself as an "Israeli-Palestinian." Israeli first. Palestinian second."
He is the second of four children; his mother is a teacher and his father is a psychologist. Yassin's native language is Palestinian Arabic; he also speaks English and non-fluent Hebrew. Although he was raised as a Muslim, he has since largely stopped practicing Islam and has declared himself as a "non-religious Muslim".
Yassin applied to Harvard University in the United States at the age of 19, seeking a degree in aerospace engineering. His application essay detailed his struggle to achieve his dreams as an ethnic Arab born in Israel. He graduated with a degree in economics in 2014 and a minor in computer science.
Career
While earning his degree at Harvard, Yassin co-founded a pay-it-forward registration service, and a social media search engine.
In September 2014, he started working as a software developer for Venmo, a mobile payment service owned by PayPal, in New York.
Nas Daily Facebook page
In 2016, Yassin quit his job at Venmo and decided to explore the world with the intention of documenting his travels and experiences on video. This resulted in his founding the video production company Nas Daily Corporation and Facebook page Nas Daily (Arabic: الناس, romanized: Al-Nās, lit. 'People'), where he released a one-minute-long video daily for 1,000 days. After meeting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in early 2018, Nas Daily was upgraded to "show" status, and by September 2018, his page had amassed over 8 million followers. By November of the same year this number had risen to over 10 million.
All of Yassin's one-minute daily videos were posted to Facebook. Yassin stated in 2017 that he did not post the videos to YouTube for a multitude of reasons, including his friends not being present on the platform.
Nas Daily Official YouTube channel
In 2019, he started to upload old videos of his on his official YouTube channel Nas Daily Official. The videos are shot using an SLR camera with an attached microphone, and are then edited before being released the next day. On average, each video takes around six hours to shoot and three hours to edit. In the beginning, the topics for Yassin's video were suggestions provided by his Facebook followers. Each video ended with the tagline: "That’s one minute, see you tomorrow!"
Yassin's collaborators included his then girlfriend Alyne Tamir, an American Israeli video-maker of Mormon and Jewish background, and Agon Hare, a video blogger and musician from Poland.
Due to the popularity of the videos with non-English speaking audiences, subtitles are provided in various languages, such as Urdu, Turkish, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, Hindi, Chinese and Arabic.
After Nas Daily
Yassin finished the 1000 daily video journey on 5 January 2019, ending the last video with the tagline: "That's one minute, see you soon." On 1 February 2019, he started making one video per week, for a planned 100 weeks until the beginning of 2021.
He previously lived in Singapore, but currently resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. His memoir, Around the World in 60 Seconds: The Nas Daily Journey, was released on 5 November 2019.
In 2020, Yassin created Nas Academy, a school for video creators and Nas Studios, a video-production studio. He also released a series of podcasts.
In 2021, Nas Academy removed an educational course by Filipino Kalinga tattoo artist Whang-Od from its platform, after the artist's grandniece said Whang-Od had never made any agreement with Nas Academy. In response, Yassin posted a video in social media which showed Whang-Od affixing her thumbprint to a document as proof of the tattoo artist's consent. The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) noted that posting a contract in social media does not equate to proof of compliance. The NCIP launched a review, on-site validation, and interview to determine the validity of the contract and whether there was informed consent. The issue was resolved on October 24, 2021 after representatives from Nas Academy Philippines formally apologized to Whang-Od and the elders and members of the community in a customary process and meeting set up by the NCIP. The community's request to declare the contract as declared null and void was affirmed by the legal team of Nas Academy.
Personal life
Obtaining Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship
In 2022, Yassin disclosed that he had acquired citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis, becoming a dual citizen and obtaining its passport. This new citizenship allowed him to gain entry into Malaysia, as he had previously been restricted from entering the country due to his Israeli citizenship.
Self-Identification as an Israeli-Palestinian
Yassin has shifted his self-identification from "Palestinian-Israeli" to "Israeli-Palestinian" following the 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas. As an Arab citizen of Israel, Yassin's identity has long incorporated both his Palestinian heritage and his Israeli citizenship.
References
- ^ Renushara (7 May 2021). "Nas Daily Admits To Buying Caribbean Passport To Enter Countries, Including Malaysia - WORLD OF BUZZ". worldofbuzz.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "Why I Am Banned From 20 Countries", youtube.com, 24 July 2022, retrieved 1 February 2023
- ^ "About Nas Daily". YouTube.
- ^ Marin, Kate (17 July 2020). "Everything about Nas Daily and his girlfriend Alyne". TheNetline. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ Steinberg, Jessica (4 March 2017). "For Israeli Arab one-minute video blogger, time is of the essence". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ^ Nas Daily (2017). "Am I in Israel or Palestine?!/Is it Israel or Palestine?". YouTube. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
- ^ Nas Daily (22 June 2017). "Am I in Israel or Palestine?!/Is it Israel or Palestine?". Facebook. Retrieved 22 October 2023. YouTube video
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Yassin, Nuseir (9 October 2023). "Personal Thoughts". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 9 October 2023.
- ^ Kingsley, Patrick; Yazbek, Hiba (26 August 2022). "A Social Media Star of a Changed Middle East: An Arab From Israel in Dubai". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 August 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
- ^ James Spiro (9 October 2023). "From today forward, I view myself as Israeli first, Palestinian second". Calcalistech.
- ^ Perper, Rosie (30 May 2018). "An Israeli-Palestinian Harvard graduate quit his job to travel the world — and is now one of the most successful creators on Facebook". Business Insider. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ^ Baker, Luke (3 March 2017). "Palestinian-Israeli covers the world in viral one-minute videos". Reuters. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ^ "Nas Daily". www.facebook.com.
- ^ Baker, Luke (5 January 2019). "Your daily dose of Nas Daily is flying away". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
- ^ Jaffe-Hoffman, Maayan (26 June 2019). "Nas Daily's evaluation of the Start-up Nation". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
- ^ Szaniszlo, Marie (4 March 2012). "'Pay It Forward' inspires Kindify site". Boston Herald. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ^ Logan, Nick (5 August 2018). "Nuseir Yassin quit his job, started Nas Daily and brought the world to your Facebook newsfeed". Globalnews.ca. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ^ Mercado, Darla (12 April 2017). "Facebook video star refuses to cash in via YouTube". CNBC. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ^ Samuel, Barimah (2 July 2023). "Nas Daily Biography". Youtube Creators Festival. Archived from the original on 2 July 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ Ferrante, Malcolm Scerri (6 May 2018). "Life with the Nas Daily crew". Times of Malta. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ^ McCarthy, Simone (25 September 2018). "I'm scared of China, says Nas Daily vlogger who thinks Singapore is 'almost perfect'". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
- ^ Steinberg, Jessica (8 November 2018). "Vlogger Nas Daily returns home, and everyone wants a piece of him". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
- ^ timgoh (17 April 2019). "Nas Daily arrives in Singapore to set up home and company". The Straits Times. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- ^ Jamora-Garceau, Therese. "Is there more love in the Philippines? Nas Daily says yes". philstar.com. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- ^ "Popular vlogger Nuseir Yassin starts 'Nas Daily Hindi' for Indian audience". The News Mill. 4 July 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
- ^ "Just the Messenger: PW Talks with Nuseir Yassin". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- ^ "Nas Daily". www.nasdaily.com. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- ^ "EP 1: The Hidden Story of Nas Daily - Nas Talks". Spotify. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- ^ Staff, ANCX. "Nas Daily removes pay-to-view Whang-Od tattoo tutorial after complaint from artist's grandniece". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- ^ "Nas Academy takes down Whang-Od course after grandniece calls it a scam". Rappler. 4 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- ^ Llemit, Kathleen A. "Nas Daily under fire for including Apo Whang-Od in Nas Academy". Philstar.com. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- ^ "Whang-Od's alleged contract with Nas Academy to be reviewed". ABS-CBN News. 6 August 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ "NAS ACADEMY APOLOGIZES AND RECONCILES WITH APO WHANG-OD'S COMMUNITY". National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
- ^ "'Nas Daily' vlogger came to Malaysia on St Kitts passport, authorities say". Today. 20 October 2022.