By Saed, a Palestinian SNS speaker from the West Bank

[Editors note: This is the first in a new series from Palestinians and Israelis looking at contemporary culture, film, TV, music and more.]

It seems that the Palestinian narrative is missing outside of the conflict and the slots on the news shows talking about the most recent tragic thing that happened that week are all anyone outside Palestine ever hears. I didn't realise this before traveling outside the West Bank, where I went to Turkey to study at a university. There, I realised that there isn't a lot of knowledge about Palestinians, their culture, customs, and living style in general. I was surprised that even though lots of people were friendly and companionate with me, I was asked questions like "do we have universities or hospitals back home?" I thought that, given that we have a lot of similarities with the Turkish people, they didn't know a lot about us outside of the conflict and occupation news.

But one of the most memorable interactions that I had there was when a student approached me after knowing that I was Palestinian to talk about Mohamed Assaf, a Palestinian singer who won a singing competition for Arab singers. The fact that we could reach people with talented artists using their art to make people from all around the world interested in learning more about Palestine and Palestinians, and learn more about our culture and narratives, was really exciting.

I remember the first time I saw the trailer for the series "Mo". I was really excited mainly because they used a song from the band DAM, a band that had a similar effect like Mohamed Assaf, where you can see lots of comments on their social media channels from people all around the world admiring their music even though it's in Arabic.

Speaking of Mo, I've been a fan of his from the time I attended the '1001 Laughs' festival a few years ago, where they brought American stand-up comedians with Palestinian and Middle Eastern backgrounds to perform in different West Bank cities. And ever since then, I've been following his career, watching the stand-up specials and series that featured him through the years. When I found out that he is starring in a Netflix series, I was really looking forward to watching it. And I actually binged the whole series in one day!

By the end of it, I really enjoyed the whole thing and I was really impressed how much heart and personality the show had. And you can see that Mo shared lots of his personal stories and struggles as a Palestinian American and a person that was pushed to be a refugee twice in his lifetime because of two different wars. And how he used this premise to create a story about resiliency and hope, while being genuinely funny, was really impressive and kind of fresh as well.

As a Palestinian, I really enjoyed the dialogue, especially as between his family members in Arabic. Sometimes I was thinking, "I can't believe he used this word or this expression." And it was really surprising how Palestinian this series felt. All the credit goes to the people behind the show and Mo, for giving him the chance to feature lots of Palestinian traditions, customs, phrases, heritage, and cuisine. For me, this was something that we were starving for as Palestinians, which is a chance to show this different, more happy side of our lives that even though we go through hardships and tragedies every day, that won't stop us from celebrating life and our customs and traditions.

I believe that this series can be a starting point for lots of people to learn more about this side of Palestine, and learn more about us from talented artists like Mo. And I highly recommend this series for anyone that wants to learn more about Palestinians. I'm really looking forward to see what Mo is creating in the future!

Mo is available on Netflix now.

Photo credit: Netflix