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YouTube star: "You can connect with me even though I'm an Arab" Israel today

2021-04-05T13:35:03.416Z


| TV It broadcasts in Hebrew, looks American, and people are still put off • Interview with Ryan Hasbani who succeeded against all odds and clarifies: "YouTube is a dangerous place if you do not have elephant skin" "I'm a man, no matter what my religion is." Ryan Hasbani Photo:  YouTube 16 years after the internet platform changed the internet, it's harder to succeed on youtube. Crowds of people o


It broadcasts in Hebrew, looks American, and people are still put off • Interview with Ryan Hasbani who succeeded against all odds and clarifies: "YouTube is a dangerous place if you do not have elephant skin"

  • "I'm a man, no matter what my religion is."

    Ryan Hasbani

    Photo: 

    YouTube

16 years after the internet platform changed the internet, it's harder to succeed on youtube.

Crowds of people open a channel every year, upload a video, two or fifty - and abandon it when they discover that the number of subscribers is not increasing and that the video has disappeared by forgetting the billions of videos created on the social network.

If overseas the channel's success is measured in millions of subscribers, in the land of hope is to reach hundreds of thousands. But if you are not a singer or celeb, you will probably have a very hard time getting others to pay attention. Ryan Hasbani is one of those who succeeded in this task It was not easy for him - and not because he is an Arab.

Hasbani, soon to be 22, lives in Kiryat Shmona, known to many as "Pedixol", as the name of his channel.

There is nothing like numbers to indicate success, in Hasbani's case it is 223,000 subscribers on YouTube, 65,000 followers on Tiktok and another 40,000 on Instagram.

Hasbani's most successful YouTube video has been viewed more than 890,000 times and the hand is tilted.

He mainly uploads reaction videos on other videos, some gaming and a lot of things he thinks will make his viewers happy, or in his words - "content according to my gut feeling".

He opened the channel when he was 14, but had to wait quite a bit until the matter gained momentum and fans.

"I saw a lot of content creators abroad who were really successful and I wanted to too, so I started it as a hobby," he says, "I tried to make the first video, about Minecraft (computer game. ZB) in English.

For five years I got no exposure, I had barely 10 views.

But I kept going and persevering, and slowly I started to put my character into videos, upload the series on the game regularly, and started watching me more.

But in the end, the Fortnight video became a hit on the net and it was he who made people know me. "

Most of Hasbani's viewers are children and teenagers, but that was not his intention in the first place - to become a kind of child star on the network.

"I see a lot of viewers who are in my age range up to the age of 25, but believe that most of the audience are children, even though it's not something I aimed for. My content is also for adults, without filters and masks, whoever comes - welcome."

Do you also manage to work in addition?

"I'm currently working on a few projects. I have not learned anything and I also do not think I will learn at this pace. Success can come even without learning."

And how did they react at home?

"My mother was very opposed, she's used to it all being around school and university, but when I started to develop and she saw my passion for it she accepted it, and today she supports me."

"I felt like a kind of animal"

Although Hasbani was born in Israel, his mother is from Lebanon ("her family is a party to the" Niks who fought for the state ") and his father is a Druze." It's a strange connection, "Hasbani smiles," they worked together and met in Metula and there my mother was turned on.

They moved to Ma'ale Ephraim and I was born there.

At that time there were a lot of conflicts with the Arab people so my mother taught me to speak Hebrew because she was afraid and did not want us to be bullied or to be looked at with a different eye.

I know only basic Arabic. "

The parents' relationship did not work out, and they separated.

In some of his videos, when he talks about his father, he mentions him as someone who "went down to buy chewing gum and never came back."

"I was nine when he left," he recalls, "they were many many and it got to a point where it was no longer possible, it was better to be alone and quiet than with someone just arguing with him. I'm not in a relationship with my dad for nine years because I wanted to be. I hoped you would be. I have a male character as a model, and I did not have one. "

Although his mother spoke to him and his little brother only in Hebrew so that he would not experience bullying at school, this was not spared him.

"It has deterred people from hearing that I am an Arab, even though to this day many are surprised to hear that I am an Arab-Christian. They think I am American or Russian. In terms of faith I am unequivocally Christian, but believe that everyone should do what is good for them. I am a man, no matter what religion My".

Did you have Jewish friends?

"There were ... the mother of one of them would yell at her in the background every time she talked to me on the phone. I felt like a kind of animal, being looked at from the side. To this day it affects me and I'm afraid of ex-parents. But most of them accepted it. The same company She told me at first that her mother has no problem with me, but after I found out that it is not like that to this day, I have a side that is afraid that people will put on a mask when they talk to me. "

Do you think that as a Jew you would have been more successful?

"There is no connection. Many thought at first that I was Jewish, because I would not talk about being an Arab - but I occasionally hesitated about it in videos. And when they realized it was real they looked at me differently, but then it opened their eyes, when they saw that I could be connected though "I am an Arab-Christian. There are also many Christians who have approached me and said that they greatly appreciate me and I give them a good name."

What responses do you get?

"Mostly good responses. There are a lot of kids who turn to me personally to tell me about extreme cases, personal issues or sexual harassment and rape. On the one hand I'm glad they turn to me, but on the other hand it sucks that they don't go to professionals who can help, and that says a lot about Our girlfriend.Every child who approaches me because of such a problem I give him all the time I can and try to direct him to professionals.There was someone who approached me and told me that she is being abused at school and her parents do not listen, and my videos make her happy.It moved me because "I saw YouTube as a hobby and did not know how significant it was for people. We talked a lot and she still turns to me quite regularly, and I think she also took professional care beyond conversations with me."

Sounds like you feel you can identify with the kids who are being bullied.

"Absolutely. During school I was not popular, I did not connect with many children, on YouTube I am the most honest and funny and in reality it is difficult for me to do it. I had five channels in the past and had to close them because I felt they broke into my personal space, I felt people criticized me. Doing from a real place. At the time I did care what people thought, and it made me judge myself. YouTube is a dangerous place for people who do not have elephant skin. In retrospect I thank the children who abused me with small blows, who helped me get vaccinated like this, because today I Can put a stripe on it. "

There have been a lot of stories lately about pedophilia on YouTube.

As someone who lives there, how do you think the phenomenon can be thwarted?

"I do not know what can be done against it. I was surprised to find out about Asbar (Eden Galant, a YouTuber who was indicted for sexual offenses committed on minors via the Internet. ZB), who was a relatively close friend of mine, and it made me realize it was very difficult To absorb them, but to warn the children and not cause their admiration to become something deeper. "

Aspirations for the future?

"Continue with YouTube, of course. I really like my place right now, but I would be happy for more financial security. It's hard to make money from YouTube in the country."

Source: israelhayom

All life articles on 2021-04-05

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