Don't Say Palestine

Vital Omar El-Akkad
Superb Raja Shehadeh
Poignant Yanis Varoufakis

If youre not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, youre 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, Dont 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 medias instrumental role in sanitizing, white-washing, and downplaying a human rights crisis.

Dont 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.