Join us to learn how Western media became a vital part of the machinery that enabled the genocide in Palestine.

Author Assal Rad will be joining us to 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 Palestine: For example, the Associated Press reported that “Gaza’s living conditions worsen as strong winds and hypothermia kill 5.” No, Rad corrects: 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.

Assal Rad is joining us on the Busboys stage to share her experience examining the media’s role in shaping narratives about Palestine. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Rad will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Doors open to guests at 5:30pm. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of DON’T SAY PALESTINE will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON.

We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books

Assal Rad is an activist, historian of the modern Middle East, and a fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC and DAWN. Her first book, The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, The National Interest, The Independent, Foreign Policy, and other publications, and she has appeared as a commentator on BBC World, Al Jazeera, CNN, NPR, and elsewhere.

BOOK DETAILS

Don’t Say Palestine

How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide

By Assal Rad

September 8, 2026 | Paperback, 256 pages, $20.00