Don't Say Palestine: How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide

by Assal Rad

If you're not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you're culpable in them.

Human rights activist and Middle East scholar Assal Rad is known online as the 'headline fixer' - with a special focus on exposing double standards in Western media, especially about Palestine. Israelis are described as 'children' and 'civilians', while Palestinians are 'people under 18' and 'collateral damage'; Israelis are killed; Palestinians die. Even in the wake of the ceasefire, major Western media continually obfuscates Israeli violence in Palestine,

This pattern of dehumanizing language, Don't Say Palestine reveals, has been so consistent throughout the Palestinian genocide that it amounts to a policy. Over the past three years, headlines in outlets from CNN to Reuters to the New York Times have consistently downplayed Israeli responsibility, 'othered' Palestinians, and called into question inviolable tenets of international law like the sanctity of hospitals and journalists in warzones. Highlighting the linguistic moves and framing devices at play and surfacing stories Western media decided not to report, Rad maps with devastating clarity mainstream media's instrumental role in sanitizing, white-washing, and downplaying a human rights crisis.

Don't Say Palestine offers both a moral reckoning and an urgent call to action. When these years are studied, this will be the book people read to understand how 'this' was allowed to happen, and the one people turn to when looking to rebuild their faith in the media.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 8, 2026

Reviews

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an arc to review.

Don't Say Palestine dissects the language used within Western media to justify the Palestinian genocide. It gets to the core of how government bodies could condone the killings of so many innocent people and shift the blame from Israel time and time again, using traditional journalist corporations to help normalize these actions. Truly, this is one of the most important books I have read, and one of the most important books coming out right now. I thoroughly recommend it, especially if you want to be more informed on what is happening in Palestine, or want more information on how we have gotten to the point we have there.

[Ellie Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, and Vintage for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

A powerful indictment of western journalism and its deference to power. Assal Rad spells out with devastating precision the role of the media in dehumanising Palestinians and manufacturing consent for genocide. This is an important piece of history, and it’s documented with stark clarity in this book. “Communication can become participation when it legitimises extraordinary violence,” writes Rad, and most devastatingly, it is not so much a failure of the system as it is the system working as it was always meant to work. A powerful piece of work, this is an absolute must read for all of us and for all generations to come.

[Aditi · Rating 5 out of 5]

ESSENTIAL READING -- longer review to come
eff nyt, bcc, cnn, wash post, sky news, and most importantly, eff you israel
FREE PALESTINE

[Wyrd Witch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and thorough, Assal Rad lays it out bright and clear how our media paved the way to excuse and facilitate a genocide.