Palestine Book Pulled from Random House Just Before Publication

Hadid and Jenan Matari withdrew a book aimed at young readers after disputes with editors over their characterizations of October 7. A book on Palestine for young readers, scheduled by Penguin Random House just before publication, was pulled following editorial disagreements between the publisher and Palestinian-American authors over its account of Palestinian history. In November 2024, Random House Children's Book

A book about Palestine for young readers has been pulled from Penguin Random House just ahead of its planned release following editorial disputes between the publisher and the book's Palestinian American authors over their account of Palestinian history.

In November 2024, Random House Children's Books, a division of Penguin Random House, signed a book deal with Alana Hadid, philanthropist, activist and older sister of models Bella and Gigi, and Janan Matari, author and communications strategist. This book was advertised for publication in September this year.

The authors, both influential social media commentators, have produced a manuscript on Palestinian history, the Israeli occupation, Palestinian resistance, and the diaspora, interspersed with references to their families' stories of displacement.

But the authors withdrew their book after protesting edits made by Random House that they said sanitized and misrepresented their views, and which they said were introduced after they thought the book was finalized. A spokesperson for Random House said the process "followed our standard bookmaking royalties" and that the publisher ultimately supported the authors' decision to pull the book.

Displacement and the Palestinian American Story is the eighth installment in Random House's Race to the Truth series, an ongoing series of nonfiction books for 10-13 year olds. The goal of these books was to present the "true story of American history" by members of marginalized groups telling the history of their people. One of the creators of the project said that he objects to the treatment of displacement and is not going to pursue further episodes of the series with the publisher.

"It turned out that Penguin would never let us write just the book we wanted to write," Hadid said. "It says a lot that they're willing to hide a very powerful collection that helps children learn about history just because of a book about Palestine."

According to Hadid and Matri, who provided the Guardian with a draft of the manuscript and email excerpts of their communications with Random House, the authors and publisher disagreed for months about the book's language, including a section about Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The authors' manuscript argued that people under "colonial rule" had a "right to resist," but Random House asked them to consider arguments that the day's attacks violated international law. In an impasse, the authors withdrew their book in early September.

The authors now plan to publish it through Interlink Books, a Palestinian-owned American publisher.

Random House Children's Books has other books about Palestine, the spokeswoman said, adding: "We are committed to providing a Palestinian perspective for young readers." The spokesperson also said that another Race to the Truth book is on track for release in 2028.

The controversy over the book comes amid disproportionate scrutiny and censorship of the work by and on behalf of the Palestinians. The conflict also revealed a wide gap between narratives around October 7, a gap that could not be filled in a book distributed by a mainstream publisher.

"I believe the book was revolutionary, which is why it got so much attention," Matri said. "They kept trying to erase our history because they didn't want to upset certain communities. But colonial history is supposed to upset you."

The Race to the Truth series was created by Saira Rao and Regina Jackson, founders of Race2Dinner, a program launched in 2019 to facilitate conversations with white women about racism. In 2020, Rao and Jackson sold White Women to Penguin Random House, which became a bestseller, then sold the children's series Race to the Truth to the publisher in 2021. Random House has since published books in the series on slavery, the colonization of the Wampanoag people, the disenfranchisement of Chinese Americans, Mexican American history, and the forced assimilation of Native youth.

As the series progressed, Rao felt it was necessary to release an episode from Palestine: "There is no bigger story to tell right now. Palestine actually tells a story of all genocides, of all settler colonial violence."

After Random House greenlit the idea in the summer of 2024, Rao brought in Matari and Hadid.

The authors presented their first draft of displacement in this country in July 2025. In the introduction, they wrote that the story of Palestine has long been lost in classrooms. "The deliberate erasure of our history has left generations of Palestinians trying to explain not only where we came from, but why nearly half of us are scattered around the world, including—as in our case—in the United States," the introduction reads.

This book discusses the landscape and history of Palestine. The rise of Zionism; The Nakba or disaster of 1948, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes. their analysis of Israel as a "settler colony"; the relationship between America and Israel; and life for Palestinians under military occupation.

They also documented their family history. They wrote that Hadid's grandparents were deported from Safed a few days after her father's birth and became refugees in Syria. And Matri and his wife's relatives were displaced from Deir Yassin and Ain Karim after the April 1948 massacre that killed more than 100 Palestinians.

"I just wanted the kids to see us as human beings," Hadid said.

Tensions arose over the project in June 2026, when, according to the authors, the book was distributed to reviewers and made available for pre-order before Random House shared the final version with the authors. When the authors received a copy, they said it contained changes to an Oct. 7 piece made by Random House without their knowledge.

In a chapter called the international right to arm the writers in resistance, they pointed to the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, which said that the people under colonial rule have the right to enjoy the "right to self-determination" and to restore this right "by any means at their disposal". The chapter also noted Hamas' use of prisoner swaps to free thousands of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, whom they called "de facto hostages of the state." Referring to the 2011 exchange of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit with more than 1,000 prisoners, they wrote: This exchange was one of the most famous and showed Palestinians that resistance can bring real results.

On October 7, the manuscript continued, Hamas fighters "went into Israel in a coordinated attack." The authors said that approximately 1,100 Israelis were killed, including 37 children, and that civilians and soldiers were captured to be used in exchange.

Their segment on Oct. 7 was brief, but argued that international law allowed Palestinian resistance "by any means necessary" and said the attacks came after "decades of suffering and neglected oppression."

They write: "Palestinians, like other oppressed peoples before them, have demanded freedom in the face of overwhelming military power. What happened on October 7 was not the beginning of violence in this land, but another moment in the long history of a people struggling for freedom."

The authors said they added details about the October 7 death toll at Random House's request, and they believe the language was finalized in May 2026. However, when they received the updated final version of the book, they found that a Random House editor had added a line about the October 7 attacks that said, "These actions were in violation of international law."

Emails show the authors objected to the inclusion, saying it contradicted their analysis of international law. They claimed in an email that making changes without their approval was also a breach of their contract. An editor at Random House suggested in an email that without that line or something similar, "we would lose credibility with our readers, including those who are open-minded about our point of view," and the book could not be published.

E-mails show that back-and-forth negotiations over the description of October 7 continued for weeks, involving the head of publicity, the legal department and the head of Random House's children's books.

Meanwhile, Random House came back with other edits that the authors found objectionable. In July, a senior Random House official suggested removing "Jew" as a modifier in several places, including when writers referred to Zionist militias involved in the destruction of Palestinian villages during the Nakba as "Jewish gangs". The Random House official wrote: "Our concern is not accuracy, but whether repetition adds the necessary clarity."

The authors responded that it would be "embarrassing" for an editor to say that accuracy is not important, prompting the editor to respond: "The editorial dilemma was not about word accuracy, but whether, given the context, the repetition of the modifier [Jewish] was necessary.

A Random House official again pressed the authors to expand on October 7, writing in an email that the authors could add context: “Some human rights organizations and commentators have described Hamas's actions that day as a violation of international law. Others frame the legal and historical issues differently.

But the authors grew increasingly frustrated, writing in an email: "In a book about the history of slavery in the United States, none of us could imagine that a black author would have to condemn slave revolts or see them as violations of international law."

"It has become abundantly clear that Penguin is more focused on focusing Jewish sentiment on the lives and lived experience of Palestinians," Matri wrote in an email to their representative.

Random House has repeatedly expressed its commitment to the book, records show, with one official saying they are dedicated to publishing "an essential and accessible book about Palestinian American fiction for young readers, a vision that is rare in children's nonfiction" and saying the editors want to work in "good faith" to resolve the issues.

By August, Random House offered to add a "publisher's note" to the book with some of the October 7th proposal language and change the age range to 14+, but also said that if the parties couldn't, the authors could take the book elsewhere by resolving their differences and keep their progress.

"Editorial discussion and revision is a standard part of the publishing process," a Random House spokesperson said in an email. We provided guidance to ensure that the intended readers for this book, ages 10 and up, have enough information to understand the topic and engage thoughtfully with the questions it raises, knowing that many readers will be coming to the topic for the first time.

A spokeswoman for the company said the company had made digitally enhanced versions available to industry contacts marked as "uncorrected" and not final, a process that was halted after the authors raised concerns. "We will not move forward with a book that the authors are not comfortable publishing," the spokesperson said.

Matri said in an interview that he felt it was unacceptable for Random House to publish a disclaimer that might contradict their writing. Ending seemed like the only option, he said: "It wasn't the book we wrote anymore."

Matari did not face backlash for his comments on October 7. Last year, several book talks planned for her first children's book, about a young Palestinian girl and her grandfather, were canceled at the last minute after people accused her of anti-Semitism, in part because of social media posts that described the October 7 attacks as resistance to colonialism and the United States "under Zionist occupation." He and Al-Jewish Author recently sued the city of Los Angeles for violating free speech after the public library canceled their planned joint book event. Materi has denied allegations of anti-Semitism and has defended his posts, saying he is "vehemently anti-Zionist".

Hadid said they were not trying to minimize the damage of October 7 and were transparent about the death toll at Random House's request. Their goal was to put these attacks in a historical context. "I wasn't going to publish this book with words I didn't write, where we were forced to tell the story from the perspective of the oppressors."

Rao, of the Race to Truth series, said his relationship with Random House had been calm before the conflicts over the Palestine book, and that previous writers had been given considerable leeway to write their stories without interference. Hadid and Matari's experience was fundamentally different: "You get the whole company in this little book," Rao said.

The end of the series at Random House comes at a time when a wide range of industries and institutions are pulling back on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, raising concerns about diminishing opportunities for people of color in academia, publishing, entertainment and media. Leila Moshabek, co-owner and longtime editor of Interlink, the publisher that carries Hadid and Matri's book, said the recent increase in book bans and open hostility to diverse works has further reduced those opportunities.