How To Win Over A Zionist

Seen TV’s CEO Yusuf Omar’s Fight Against Israeli Propaganda

By Sajid Ahmed 

Today the media landscape is the most prime piece of real estate. Whomsoever lays claim to it, controls society’s most prized possession.

The story.

Currently, Israeli Prime Minster/war criminal Benjam Netanyahu, alongside having killed more than hundreds of journalists on the ground in Gaza, is writing his version of the story with blood-soaked ink paying $7,000 to influencers to conduct damage control from the global disdain Israel has gotten for their part in the Palestinian genocide.

But since October 7th, 2023, in spite of the Israeli government’s efforts, the world appears to sympathize in a way never before with the Palestinians’ years long occupation and oppression. A large part of this seismic shift in the narrative owes greatly to Instagram and TikTok for broadcasting to the world the horrific reality occurring in Gaza on a daily basis.

Seeing how the tide is turning, it is no surprise then that friends and benefactors of Israel are making moves to quell the shift in public sentiment. For example, CEO of Oracle, Larry Ellison hawkishly has his eyes on acquiring TikTok to potentially hijack and reverse public support regarding Palestine. Even though the United States sends billions to Israel in military aid, a similar arms race is taking place over the control of media assets to win the minds of people in what so far ostensibly is a losing battle for Israel.

But with all these resources, what can the everyday person do against billionaire moguls and politicians?

Well one former war correspondent from Australia has an idea.

Meet Yusuf Omar, the co-founder of Seen TV, a media company that provides training to marginalized communities on how to tell stories that can reach the masses over the digital space.

Under the Seen Palestine division of the company, Yusuf and his team have equipped young, talented Palestinians with the tools to form and shape their lived experiences in the midst of a genocide, into the hearts of millions across the world, through one mobile phone at a time.

We sat down with Yusuf to discuss his story and how he founded Seen, and the power of media today in conflicts such as the Palestinian oppression and elsewhere.

What follows is a condensed version from the full conversation with Yusuf Omar.

If You Kill Journalists, The Truth Is Your Enemy

“Most people don’t know how to tell a story,” says Yusuf.

Despite the latest phones and technology, only a handful of people become creators on social media. Even if someone wanted to become a creator, many simply lack the skills to do so.

Noticing this gap, ultimately led Yusuf to create Seen TV, which aims to empower marginalized communities through digital storytelling.

In regards to Gaza, Israel’s deliberate killing of journalists has allowed them to commit their crimes in the dark with impunity.

Seen Palestine tries to find future ‘Bisan’s’ in Palestine; people with natural charisma and a unique perspective. The company provides technical knowhow on what works with the ‘algorithm’ in order for these pieces to reach the largest audience possible.

Although Seen Palestine does engage and acknowledge the importance of short-form content, they culminate every month into a feature-length documentary that more closely details the lives of Palestinian creators.

The documentaries only take a few weeks to create, versus years on a traditional film set, because of the utility of mobile phones.

And these things have real impact in terms of winning over hearts and minds. Alongside the overwhelming support over social media, a good majority of Hollywood actors, such as Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Lawrence, and Joaquin Phoenix among others, have vocally made clear their support for Palestine.

Yusuf believes the war/genocide won’t be won with “planes and tanks,” but rather about “changing hearts and minds,” which in such little time has happened.

The Percussive Capacity of Storytelling To Change Hearts

Yusuf believes strongly in storytelling. Although it can be hard to empirically gauge how many people change their minds, stories such as Yusuf taking these documentaries to film festivals all over the world, with Zionists in attendance, who have broken down in tears upon watching, confirms his hypothesis.

The biggest power of storytelling is highlighting what we have in common. People usually say a good story talks about ‘the human condition.’ It’s why we can read Hadith about sahaba who lived in Medina, 1000 years ago, and still find commonality in their lives with our own.

Zionists also, as Yusuf notes, don’t occur in a vacuum. They are the result of targeted propaganda since childhood in an Orwellian type of programming done to them in the real world.

While completely rewriting the circuitry of prejudice that lies at the heart of Zionists may be much too a burden for stories, Yusuf does realize many of those who are observing the genocide from a cursory position, are impressionalbe and prone to changing their minds.

“Most Americans are the movable middle,” Yusuf says, who you can move across the line with stories.

If You Please, Draw Me A Story

“Start with the heart,” is Yusuf’s first commandment to storytelling. And then you address the mind, before finally calling them to action.

But it all begins with the heart. When a person with certain prejudices sees a Palestinian with hopes, dreams, and emotions, they might realize they are a person just like them. A real, living soul struggling with the same issues in life they are going through as well.

Yusuf keenly points out that traditional media boils Palestinian life down to a statistic, another number to the casualty list. Whereas Israeli hostages, like non-Muslim terrorists, receive an entire backstory and soundbites from family on how they were such a good person.

Even though it is a failing of the human race that despite hearing 66,000 civilians have been killed does little to move their hearts, we must do the hard work of humanizing each of those lives.

For example, the story of Hind Rajab, an unarmed six year-old girl who alongside her family was killed after an Israeli tank shot at them more than 300 times, was turned into a Hollywood documentary that received a standing ovation for over 10 minutes. Or Khalid Nabhan whose words ‘the soul of my soul,’ in reference to his granddaughter Reem killed in an airstrike, makes the heart immediately swell and produce uncontrollable tears.

Only upon doing this, can you push people to the final stage of actually acting towards good.

Across The Seven Seas, All Will Be Free

About less than a month ago, Yusuf was part of the global Flotilla project heading for Gaza to deliver aid.

Only five vessels in the history of Flotillas have actually made it to the shores of Gaza.

Among the reasons it’s so difficult to get there, as Yusuf describes, is because of Israel’s naval force, whose methods of intercepting include drone strikes onto the flotillas.

Once a vessel is caught, and its members detained, the treatment is not very surprising.

“A navy seal brigade known as S-13, super ruthless…they boarded all these vessels… detained, kidnapped all of the Flotilla members and put them onto a big navy ship, took them off to Israeli, what they call terrorism-prisons out in the desert. Now it’s a process of various governments trying to convince Israel to release their civilians.”

Among the crew members Yusuf was with, included 22 year-old Norwegian climate activist, Greta Thunberg.

“Greta is singlehandedly the most inspirational woman that I have ever met,” Yusuf said, in regards to Thunberg’s eloquence, as well as her resilience aboard the ship and after her detainment, where witnesses have reported she was forced to kiss the Israeli flag and violently treated.

In spite of the ill treatment, Thunberg and other members kept their heads high throughout the entire process.

“We’ll be back,” became, according to Yusuf, the words Flotilla members signed on their boats and prison cells. In spite of the harsh conditions on these voyages, Flotilla applications have received more than 26,000 applicants.

In order to obtain a spot on these flotillas, one must fill out an online application, which wants a diversity of participants including doctors, communicators, crew “who can operate vessels,” but more importantly can demonstrate a propensity for non-violence when confronting Israeli forces, who simply “look for an excuse to kill you.”

Takes Very Little To Do Big Things

“We as a community are so underinvested in media. And the other side has been invested in media for the last 100 years…and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

Although there are ‘profiles’ of media entities within our communities that include Zeteo, Ansari Podcast and others, there is still a lack of ‘media empires,’ as Yusuf describes.

But getting this media empire to exist requires funds and patronage for journalist salaries, and finds itself viewed by the Muslim community as a lesser priority at the moment. But this, Yusuf says, is how you end the occupation.

Because, we’re at a time right now in history, a momentous one, Yusuf says, where there is a vast disconnect between traditional media and people on how they feel about the world. Most people are for Palestine, while your legacy news outlets are pro-Zionists. Regular people, who want more “aligned" content about things happening on the ground in Palestine won’t find it on ABC or CBS.

So initiatives such as the Ansari Podcast or Seen TV, and others fill that void. And it doesn’t take much. It takes two microphones and a camera to do a podcast. It takes a mobile phone, and a quick editing tool to shoot a video.

The problem is the community deliberates way too much, instead of putting that energy into action where by the time we’re finished strategizing the window has passed.