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Two Palestinian American authors have withdrawn their children's history book from Penguin Random House following disagreements over proposed changes to passages addressing the Nakba and the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, with the book now set to be published by Interlink Publishing in 2027.
Jenan Matari and Alana Hadid, the older sister of models Bella and Gigi Hadid, said they pulled out of the agreement after concluding that the publisher's requested revisions would undermine the Palestinian perspective they had spent two years developing.
Originally titled "Displacement and the Palestinian American Story," the book will instead come out under the title "Understanding Palestine for Young Readers: A Palestinian American Perspective," which Interlink has already listed for preorder.
According to The Guardian, which first reported the dispute, the authors withdrew the manuscript in early September after a Random House editor inserted a sentence without their approval describing the Oct. 7 attack as a violation of international law.
The publisher also suggested removing the word "Jewish" from several descriptions, including references to Zionist militias involved in destroying Palestinian villages during the Nakba, the mass displacement of Palestinians surrounding the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In August, Random House reportedly proposed adding a publisher's note addressing Oct. 7 and changing the book's intended readership from children aged 10 and older to those aged 14 and older.
Hadid told The Guardian that the disagreements eventually convinced the authors that Penguin Random House would not allow them to present the history as they intended.
In an Instagram statement Thursday, Matari said she and Hadid had chosen to stand by their community rather than accept changes they considered incompatible with their principles.
"We will never betray our own people for anyone's comfort – and especially never for personal success," Matari wrote.
In a video shared alongside Hadid, Matari confirmed that their two-year writing project would move forward with Interlink Publishing in 2027.
A Random House spokesperson told The Guardian that the editorial discussions had followed the company's standard publishing procedures and that it respected the authors' decision to withdraw.
Random House Children's Books, a division of Penguin Random House, had originally signed the project in November 2024 with Matari, an author and communications strategist, and Hadid, an activist.
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