The journalist and author James Surowiecki observed that “the important thing about groupthink is that it works not so much by censoring dissent as by making dissent seem somehow improbable.”
At this point, CBC News coverage on the Hamas-Israel war mostly sounds like it has been produced in a groupthink echo chamber. With this in mind, the March 24 news article by Wafa El-Rayes entitled: “Local tatreezer builds community through Palestinian embroidery” and video article on the same topic titled: “Palestinian embroidery brings healing says this ‘tatreezer,’ were no different.
It sounds like another heartwarming story of support in the face of suffering – not the first time the CBC has painted Tatreez as an innocent hobby.
Alsaafin is no mere embroidery enthusiast. Her social media gives an insight into her extremist views, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, and no posts condemning the October 7, 2023 massacre on Israel.
The articles purportedly told the narrative of Israa Alsaafin, a Gazan now living in Canada. In order to connect with her heritage and process her suffering when her brother was killed in the war in Gaza, she took up the practice of cross-stitching motifs that tell the Palestinian story, which they call ‘tatreez,’, and she found her calling in teaching this to like-minded people.
Alarmingly, albeit unsurprisingly, in the news report, Alsaafin referred to Hamas’ October 7 massacres purely in terms of the impact on the Gazans, saying: “I finished it the night of October 7th, and it was night at our time, but it was morning at my family time, and I was really happy I put it on, and I’m like ‘I finished my first t-shirt,’ and my mom she’s like, ‘um no one cares about your tatreez right now, we’re in the middle of a catastrophe we don’t know what’s going on.’”
The CBC News report provides no context about the 1,200 Israeli innocents murdered, raped, mutilated, and taken hostage on that date, nor that 59 hostages are still held in Gaza – dead or alive. The implicit accusation against Israel as wantonly causing suffering was not contextualized by the fact that Hamas could stop the conflict immediately by returning the hostages snatched from their lives. Nor do they mention that Hamas is dedicated to the eradication of Israel – and wants to rule in its stead – and therefore Israel has been forced into a war of self-defense.
But there was an allusion to it. One of the Tatreez symbols shown is a map of Israel, sewn in the colours associated with the pro-Palestinian cause, and also with a key next to it, implying that Israel has no right to exist and should be replaced by “Palestine”. This is a symbol claiming that when the Arabs left Israel in 1948 their homes were taken from them, part of the ‘Nakba’ narrative and that the whole of Israel should be theirs.
Similarly, in the written article El-Rayes wrote of Lina Barkawi, Alsaafin’s tatreez teacher, the reporter wrote that “Barkawi says she’s fascinated by how tatreez reflects key moments of Palestinians’ history. For example, following the 1948 displacement known as the Nakba, the Arabic word for ‘catastrophe,’ she says women from different villages, now living in refugee communities, exchanged designs and blended regional motifs to create thobes that told stories of their shared displacement.”
What CBC News opted not to share is that in 1947, the League of Nations – precursor to the United Nations – offered the Arabs and Jews a two-state solution. The Arabs rejected it and the Jews accepted it. When the Jews declared independence over this allocated land in 1947, Arab leaders called on Arabs within Israel to leave, with the promise they would return shortly after Israel was annihilated. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs heeded their call leading to their displacement.
The CBC News article also displayed a recycling of guests, as the report recorded that “Alsaafin’s friend Sara El Arbid, 40, said she wanted to learn tatreez after seeing online tatreez circles at the University of Ottawa pro-Palestinian encampment last spring.” El Arbid was the subject of an extended interview on CBC just three days earlier speaking about a distant relative of hers in Gaza.
This CBC News article and broadcast has told only one side of a highly charged, complex geopolitical situation, and sanitized hateful Palestinian extremism in the process.
Originally published by Honest Reporting Canada.