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Don't Say Palestine: How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide
A searing indictment of Western media that lays bare how the "free press," long tasked with speaking truth to power, instead became a vital part of the machinery that enabled the genocide in Palestine
"In this important new work of media criticism, Rad dissects the biases, distortions, and falsehoods by which press institutions conceal the atrocities of empire—as well as delivering a powerful call for accountability, justice, and truth." —Molly Crabapple, author of Here Where We Live Is Our Country
If you’re not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you’re culpable in them.
Activist and Middle East historian Assal Rad is known as the “headline fixer” for her powerful posts that illustrate how mainstream Western media’s coverage of the Gaza Genocide is filled with double standards. 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 so-called ceasefire, major Western media continually obfuscates Israeli violence in For example, the Associated Press reported that "Gaza's living conditions worsen as strong winds and hypothermia kill 5." No, Rad Gaza's living conditions worsen as Israel blocks aid.
In Don’t Say Palestine, Rad reveals a pattern of dehumanizing language—in outlets from CNN and the AP to the BBC and The New York Times—so consistently employed throughout the Palestinian genocide that it amounts to a policy. Mainstream Western media consistently downplays Israeli responsibility, “others” Palestinians, and casts doubt on inviolable tenets of international law like the sanctity of hospitals and journalists in war zones. This groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé offers both a moral reckoning and an urgent call to action, mapping with devastating clarity the media’s complicity in whitewashing a human rights crisis.
"In this important new work of media criticism, Rad dissects the biases, distortions, and falsehoods by which press institutions conceal the atrocities of empire—as well as delivering a powerful call for accountability, justice, and truth." —Molly Crabapple, author of Here Where We Live Is Our Country
If you’re not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you’re culpable in them.
Activist and Middle East historian Assal Rad is known as the “headline fixer” for her powerful posts that illustrate how mainstream Western media’s coverage of the Gaza Genocide is filled with double standards. 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 so-called ceasefire, major Western media continually obfuscates Israeli violence in For example, the Associated Press reported that "Gaza's living conditions worsen as strong winds and hypothermia kill 5." No, Rad Gaza's living conditions worsen as Israel blocks aid.
In Don’t Say Palestine, Rad reveals a pattern of dehumanizing language—in outlets from CNN and the AP to the BBC and The New York Times—so consistently employed throughout the Palestinian genocide that it amounts to a policy. Mainstream Western media consistently downplays Israeli responsibility, “others” Palestinians, and casts doubt on inviolable tenets of international law like the sanctity of hospitals and journalists in war zones. This groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé offers both a moral reckoning and an urgent call to action, mapping with devastating clarity the media’s complicity in whitewashing a human rights crisis.
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Published September 8, 2026
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September 6, 2026free palestine 🇵🇸
June 1, 2026
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.
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.
Did Not Finish
September 8, 2026Explanation: I am extremely disappointed in the lack of cohesive research in this work. I expected much more from the author. Citing your own X posts is not a way to build your thesis, nor is citing the work of journalism outlets you spent the first 20% of the book discrediting. Also, using Wikipedia as ANY type of source is unacceptable.
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September 11, 2026Palestine! And Palestine!
Who tells the story of Gaza, if not herself?
In her book Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine Erakat* argues that the law is like a boat’s sail, it provides motion but cannot choose the destination. In other words, it is a tool and means to an end not an end itself. She goes on in that book to argue that Zionists and Zionism have used the law in that manner not only to take land, but to expand its colonial settler regime. That book was written before Gaza, and bad as the situation might have been we have had the horrors of the invasion and atrocities of the occupation since.
In this book, Rad argues very much the same argument, very much. Except, instead of the law, it is for the media. She puts forth the argument that media in the west are repeating and amplifying the Zionist narrative in the language they employ to, as justice has been constructed, construct the truth. It’s an old story, isn’t it? What’s new here is the context: genocide.
Widely known as the “Palestine headline fixer” Rad has been frequently featured in non-mainstream media outlets in the past few years on issues related to the Middle East. An activist, and historian of the modern Middle East, this is her second book and one on an issue for which she is regarded and sought as an expert. She’s been cited, particularly within the context of the war on Gaza, as an authority on the outright bias of mainstream media, especially in the west, when it comes to the Palestinian issue.
Rad breaks down headlines and media coverage and treatment to show how editorial decisions espouse and uphold a certain world-view, to the exclusion of another, oftentimes in grotesquely (even obscenely) unjust ways, and irrefutably purposeful. From using words like “died,” to bury facts like “slaughtered” to reporting misinformation and omitting mention of perpetrators and covering-up clear culpability to using objectivity itself, out-and-out, to favor one narrative over another.
I thought it was surprisingly well cited, even though we all know those media figures, outlets and articles. Books that have a political slant, as this does, typically are by nature a one-time read, but this here is one I may read several times. I am a journalist by background, academically and otherwise. I’d be interested in the media bias regardless, but this was actually really really good and offered an often overlooked, if apparently consequential, regardless of how unheeded a perspective.
I would even argue that the book is a good check on how bias filters into language itself in general, and may have value for writers if for no other reason than to show how word-choice is more revealing than writers may imagine it to be to readers.
Really appreciated the context which doesn't seem needed but will prove insightful in hindsight, particularly for posterity readers. There are details here that I already seem to have disburdened my memory of and the book helped remind me of. Gaza is such a milestone that it seems to require a guidebook to help make sense of the world after it. This is that manual.
I feel like books written before Gaza and after should be different, an this is the book that would be missing.
Because after genocide, what do we say?
Exceptional. If for no other reason than as a survey of a global historical, hard, moment. People around the world saw. We all saw. And know.
And if Gaza didn’t already do it, perhaps this will finally, FINALLY, break your fidelity to the received narrative, blow away the smoke and unveil the mirrors.
*Erakat has a book coming out next month “Confronting Zionism” co-authored with John Reynolds.
Who tells the story of Gaza, if not herself?
In her book Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine Erakat* argues that the law is like a boat’s sail, it provides motion but cannot choose the destination. In other words, it is a tool and means to an end not an end itself. She goes on in that book to argue that Zionists and Zionism have used the law in that manner not only to take land, but to expand its colonial settler regime. That book was written before Gaza, and bad as the situation might have been we have had the horrors of the invasion and atrocities of the occupation since.
In this book, Rad argues very much the same argument, very much. Except, instead of the law, it is for the media. She puts forth the argument that media in the west are repeating and amplifying the Zionist narrative in the language they employ to, as justice has been constructed, construct the truth. It’s an old story, isn’t it? What’s new here is the context: genocide.
Widely known as the “Palestine headline fixer” Rad has been frequently featured in non-mainstream media outlets in the past few years on issues related to the Middle East. An activist, and historian of the modern Middle East, this is her second book and one on an issue for which she is regarded and sought as an expert. She’s been cited, particularly within the context of the war on Gaza, as an authority on the outright bias of mainstream media, especially in the west, when it comes to the Palestinian issue.
Rad breaks down headlines and media coverage and treatment to show how editorial decisions espouse and uphold a certain world-view, to the exclusion of another, oftentimes in grotesquely (even obscenely) unjust ways, and irrefutably purposeful. From using words like “died,” to bury facts like “slaughtered” to reporting misinformation and omitting mention of perpetrators and covering-up clear culpability to using objectivity itself, out-and-out, to favor one narrative over another.
I thought it was surprisingly well cited, even though we all know those media figures, outlets and articles. Books that have a political slant, as this does, typically are by nature a one-time read, but this here is one I may read several times. I am a journalist by background, academically and otherwise. I’d be interested in the media bias regardless, but this was actually really really good and offered an often overlooked, if apparently consequential, regardless of how unheeded a perspective.
I would even argue that the book is a good check on how bias filters into language itself in general, and may have value for writers if for no other reason than to show how word-choice is more revealing than writers may imagine it to be to readers.
Really appreciated the context which doesn't seem needed but will prove insightful in hindsight, particularly for posterity readers. There are details here that I already seem to have disburdened my memory of and the book helped remind me of. Gaza is such a milestone that it seems to require a guidebook to help make sense of the world after it. This is that manual.
I feel like books written before Gaza and after should be different, an this is the book that would be missing.
Because after genocide, what do we say?
Exceptional. If for no other reason than as a survey of a global historical, hard, moment. People around the world saw. We all saw. And know.
And if Gaza didn’t already do it, perhaps this will finally, FINALLY, break your fidelity to the received narrative, blow away the smoke and unveil the mirrors.
*Erakat has a book coming out next month “Confronting Zionism” co-authored with John Reynolds.
September 8, 2026
“Language became the sharpest tool in this media apparatus. Terms like "conflict" and "fighting" blurred the asymmetry of power; "air strikes" happened frequently without agents. When Israel was named, it often came with the phrase "targeting Hamas" to justify the attack, whether it was on a school, hospital, or refugee camp with Palestinians in makeshift tents, and no matter how many civilians were killed. The use of "targeting Hamas" became a means to normalize the mass slaughter of civilians by reframing indiscriminate bombing as a precise military campaign.”
“By referring to Palestinians in Gaza as "Gazans," the media construct a narrative that separates the issue of Gaza from Palestine and the larger issue of Palestinian liberation.”
“By referring to Palestinians in Gaza as "Gazans," the media construct a narrative that separates the issue of Gaza from Palestine and the larger issue of Palestinian liberation.”
September 9, 2026
4.75 rating! This is a very informative book on how Western media have framed the genocide of the people of Palestine and their undying support of Israel, despite the terror they have caused. The author paints a clear picture of how legacy organizations such as CNN, NYT, Reuters, etc. have framed Israel not being responsible for the atrocities that Palestinian people and Gaza have endured over the past couple of years. This was a very well researched account of who the media deems human and worthy of mourning and who is not.
August 21, 2026
Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review
This was one of my most highly anticipated nonfiction releases of 2026… and therefore I felt let down.
This book is about exactly what the synopsis describes—nothing more. In it, Rad explains that legacy media has a history of being the mouthpiece for the government in power, and is thus complicit in the US imperialist government’s destruction of lives, lands, and nations all over the world.
My issue with this is that Rad seems to merely repeat arguments set forth by people such as Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky (in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media), while not giving us additional insight into the structures that have allowed this to happen in mainstream media. DON’T SAY PALESTINE isn’t investigative journalism; it’s merely a report. I wanted a deep dive into the decision-making decisions in the back rooms of the New York Times and BBC. Instead, Rad merely expands her descriptions of her social media posts in which she edits headlines that omit Israel’s role in committing genocide, downplay Israel’s genocidal decisions (such as making it seem as if famine in Gaza had just appeared rather than being completely manufactured), and overall shape the American public’s perceptions of what’s happening in occupied Palestine.
The thing is, if you’re someone who’s been paying attention and trying to educate themselves over the past few years, the points that Rad makes are already evident. If you’ve been actively applying your high school English critical reading skills to thinking about media headlines, then you will have already come to the same conclusions as Rad.
So, then, who is DON’T SAY PALESTINE for? It’s not for me, but it might make a good follow-up read for those who felt that Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This was one of the best books they’d ever read.
This was one of my most highly anticipated nonfiction releases of 2026… and therefore I felt let down.
This book is about exactly what the synopsis describes—nothing more. In it, Rad explains that legacy media has a history of being the mouthpiece for the government in power, and is thus complicit in the US imperialist government’s destruction of lives, lands, and nations all over the world.
My issue with this is that Rad seems to merely repeat arguments set forth by people such as Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky (in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media), while not giving us additional insight into the structures that have allowed this to happen in mainstream media. DON’T SAY PALESTINE isn’t investigative journalism; it’s merely a report. I wanted a deep dive into the decision-making decisions in the back rooms of the New York Times and BBC. Instead, Rad merely expands her descriptions of her social media posts in which she edits headlines that omit Israel’s role in committing genocide, downplay Israel’s genocidal decisions (such as making it seem as if famine in Gaza had just appeared rather than being completely manufactured), and overall shape the American public’s perceptions of what’s happening in occupied Palestine.
The thing is, if you’re someone who’s been paying attention and trying to educate themselves over the past few years, the points that Rad makes are already evident. If you’ve been actively applying your high school English critical reading skills to thinking about media headlines, then you will have already come to the same conclusions as Rad.
So, then, who is DON’T SAY PALESTINE for? It’s not for me, but it might make a good follow-up read for those who felt that Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This was one of the best books they’d ever read.
September 9, 2026
Don’t Say Palestine by Assal Rad is a fantastic critical look at how words spoken by the media matter on one’s perception of reality. The ability to show in an accessible way the differences between reporting of events that happen to people in Israel versus events that happen to people in Gaza is jaw dropping. I was reading this book and getting more upset at the failure of what I thought was a free and fair reporting by the few mainstream news stations I thought I could trust. Seeing the stark differences in not only what is reported but also how it is reported literally made me so angry. I feel manipulated!
This is such an important book for people to read and see how media (and by that I mean those who own the media) use words and language to form our opinion about what is or is not a genocide. It’s hard to believe that even with all the evidence proven through people on the ground using their own cameras, the high number of casualties not only civilians but also journalists on the ground in Gaza, and testimonies from people like those who work at World Central Kitchen of the atrocities taken place by the Israeli government, people still don’t know what to believe. Or maybe it is easier to say, I don’t know what to believe than it is to actually take a stand one way or the other.
I know this book made me feel uncomfortable but it was a necessary uncomfortable. Opinions can change and through books like this, eyes are opening. Even among Jewish people like myself.
Thank you, Assal Rad, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for providing this e-ARC via NetGalley for review.
This is such an important book for people to read and see how media (and by that I mean those who own the media) use words and language to form our opinion about what is or is not a genocide. It’s hard to believe that even with all the evidence proven through people on the ground using their own cameras, the high number of casualties not only civilians but also journalists on the ground in Gaza, and testimonies from people like those who work at World Central Kitchen of the atrocities taken place by the Israeli government, people still don’t know what to believe. Or maybe it is easier to say, I don’t know what to believe than it is to actually take a stand one way or the other.
I know this book made me feel uncomfortable but it was a necessary uncomfortable. Opinions can change and through books like this, eyes are opening. Even among Jewish people like myself.
Thank you, Assal Rad, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for providing this e-ARC via NetGalley for review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this early copy. Pub date: 09.08.26
This is an important book that puts a spotlight on Western media for their incredibly passive language when it comes to actions perpetrated by their allies (and themselves). I didn’t notice it myself until the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran when American media was running stories with the perpetrator as their source of information, who was of course denying their part in the tragedy.
Rad points out that disinformation and this kind of puppeteering in the news is so dangerous in a “free world” with a “free press” because we expect our journalists to live up to the expectations set for them. We don’t expect there to be manufactured news stories, tweaked language to subtly shift blame, or words completely banned from publication. Citizens under dictatorships expect this from their news, American do not.
I’m glad Rad and others have taken it upon themselves to bring this into the light, and I hope those responsible feel shame for their part in this. I also hope one day we can dig deeper into the WHY. There’s no reason to justify what has been done, but we all deserve answers for why the wool was pulled over our eyes while they carried out the most heinous crimes against other human beings.
This is an important book that puts a spotlight on Western media for their incredibly passive language when it comes to actions perpetrated by their allies (and themselves). I didn’t notice it myself until the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran when American media was running stories with the perpetrator as their source of information, who was of course denying their part in the tragedy.
Rad points out that disinformation and this kind of puppeteering in the news is so dangerous in a “free world” with a “free press” because we expect our journalists to live up to the expectations set for them. We don’t expect there to be manufactured news stories, tweaked language to subtly shift blame, or words completely banned from publication. Citizens under dictatorships expect this from their news, American do not.
I’m glad Rad and others have taken it upon themselves to bring this into the light, and I hope those responsible feel shame for their part in this. I also hope one day we can dig deeper into the WHY. There’s no reason to justify what has been done, but we all deserve answers for why the wool was pulled over our eyes while they carried out the most heinous crimes against other human beings.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
So it’s the first week of school here for my kids and I also got to sit and educate myself on a topic that has had a big impact on my life as a middle eastern person being caught between two worlds of passed down immigrant grief and being born in the US.
I think it is essential reading for all to be aware on how the media can push a narrative by meticulous wording.
Assal gives clarity and deconstructs articles and titles exposing how words contribute to patterns of dehumanizing language in mainstream western media.
This was extremely insightful to how I grew up watching the news with passages going back to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. And how to now closely view current events and intentions to alter facts.
I commend all who continuously give a voice to those who don’t have one. For the journalists who risk their lives. To the authors and publishers who put work like this out for us. Honored to receive this gifted galley as a KDGP Influencer thank you to the publisher.
I think it is essential reading for all to be aware on how the media can push a narrative by meticulous wording.
Assal gives clarity and deconstructs articles and titles exposing how words contribute to patterns of dehumanizing language in mainstream western media.
This was extremely insightful to how I grew up watching the news with passages going back to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. And how to now closely view current events and intentions to alter facts.
I commend all who continuously give a voice to those who don’t have one. For the journalists who risk their lives. To the authors and publishers who put work like this out for us. Honored to receive this gifted galley as a KDGP Influencer thank you to the publisher.
Read
September 14, 2026Very important work. I’ve been following Assad Rad’s headline fixes throughout this post Oct. 7-genocide, and this comprehensive reporting and analysis is undeniable. I’ll never forgive Israel for its civilian death toll, especially the children, medics, aid workers, and journalists. It’s disgusting, and international government complicity needs to end, as well as the occupation, apartheid, and systematic abuse.
June 4, 2026
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.
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.
September 13, 2026
Yes i know, the sources are mainly "X" based. The question is if it really matters since the book is about media being complicit in the Gaza Genocide and newsoutlets posts on X too.
Short book to read, solid read and it makes the case all the more clear. Media should do more to truly be impartial instead of being a suck up for the USA/Israeli warmachine.
Short book to read, solid read and it makes the case all the more clear. Media should do more to truly be impartial instead of being a suck up for the USA/Israeli warmachine.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
ESSENTIAL READING -- longer review to come
eff nyt, bcc, cnn, wash post, sky news, and most importantly, eff you israel
FREE PALESTINE
eff nyt, bcc, cnn, wash post, sky news, and most importantly, eff you israel
FREE PALESTINE
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Well-researched and thorough, Assal Rad lays it out bright and clear how our media paved the way to excuse and facilitate a genocide.
September 12, 2026
actual rating: 4.5 stars
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Don't Say Palestine shows the extent of how Western media has enabled the genocide in Gaza. Rad lays out everything from the use of dehumanizing language, to vague headline wording to obscure fault, to comparing how the same media is handling Russia/Ukraine coverage. I highly recommend picking this one up as well as How to Sell a Genocide by Adam Johnson.
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