Penguin Random House pulled a Palestine book for young readers co-written by Alana Hadid and Jenan Matari just before its scheduled release, following editorial disputes with the book's Palestinian American authors, according to manuscript pages and email excerpts the two shared with the Guardian. The authors withdrew Displacement and the Palestinian American Story in early September, objecting to edits they said sanitized and misrepresented their views and were made after they believed the book was final.

A book deal that ended at an impasse

Random House Children's Books signed the deal in November 2024 with Hadid, a philanthropist, activist and older sister of Bella and Gigi, and Matari, an author and communications strategist. The book was promoted for release in September this year. The authors submitted their first draft of Displacement in July 2025.

At an impasse over the manuscript's language, the authors withdrew the book in early September. A Random House spokesperson said the process followed the publisher's standard bookmaking procedures and that Random House supported the authors' decision to pull it.

The 7 October passage at the center

The draft manuscript and email excerpts provided by Hadid and Matari show months of disagreement about language in the book, including a passage on the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. The manuscript said Hamas fighters crossed into Israel in a coordinated assault, that roughly 1,100 Israelis were killed including 37 children, and that civilians and soldiers were taken captive for use in an exchange.

The authors said they had added the death toll details at Random House's request and believed the language was finalized in May 2026. In an updated final copy, a Random House editor had inserted a new line: "These actions were a violation of international law."

The manuscript argued that people under "colonial domination" have the "right to resist". In a chapter called The International Right to Armed Resistance, the authors cited a UN general assembly resolution saying people under colonial domination are entitled to restore the right to self-determination "by any means at their disposal". They objected in emails that the inserted line contradicted their analysis of international law, and claimed in an email that adding it without their approval violated their contract.

One Random House editor wrote that without such a line, "we will lose all credibility with our readers, including those who are open-minded about our perspective", and that the book could not be published. Negotiations over the 7 October description continued for weeks, with Random House's head of publicity, legal department and children's books president involved in discussions.

Hadid said the publisher was willing to tank an entire very powerful series that helps children learn history because of one book about Palestine.

What the manuscript told

Displacement and the Palestinian American Story was set to be the eighth installment in Random House's Race to the Truth series, a collection of nonfiction books for youth ages 10 to 13. Race to the Truth books aim to provide the "true story of American history", written by members of marginalized groups about their peoples' histories.

The series was conceived by Saira Rao and Regina Jackson, founders of Race2Dinner, a program launched in 2019 to facilitate conversations with white women about racism. After Random House greenlit a Palestine installment in summer 2024, Rao brought on Matari and Hadid.

The manuscript covered the history of Palestine, Israeli occupation, Palestinian resistance and the diaspora, woven with the authors' own family histories:

• •The book traced the rise of Zionism, the 1948 Nakba, in which more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes, an analysis of Israel as a 'settler colony', the US-Israel relationship and life under military occupation.
• •Hadid's grandparents were expelled from Safed days after her father was born, becoming refugees in Syria.
• •Relatives of Matari and her husband were displaced from Deir Yassin and Ein Karem after an April 1948 massacre that claimed the lives of more than 100 Palestinians.

The introduction said the deliberate erasure of Palestinian history has left generations of Palestinians struggling to explain not only where they come from, and noted that nearly half are scattered around the world, including in the United States.

Tensions arose on the project in June 2026. By then the book had been distributed to reviewers and made available for preorder, yet Random House had not shared a final version with the authors.

In July, a senior Random House official suggested removing "Jewish" as a modifier in several places, including the authors' description of Zionist militias in the Nakba as "Jewish gangs". The official wrote that the concern was not accuracy but whether the repetition added necessary clarity; the authors called the suggestion shameful.

A Random House official also proposed the authors add context noting that some human rights organizations and commentators have described Hamas's actions that day as violations of international law, while others frame the questions differently.

What happens next

The authors plan to release the book through Interlink Books, a Palestinian-owned US publisher.

The Random House spokesperson said the publisher has other forthcoming books on Palestine and remains committed to bringing the Palestinian perspective to young readers.

Another Race to the Truth book remains on track for 2028 publication, according to the spokesperson. A co-creator of the series said she objected to the treatment of Displacement and would not be pursuing future installments with the publisher.