The publishing giant Penguin Random House has withdrawn a book about Palestine for young readers just days before its scheduled release, following editorial disputes with the book’s Palestinian American authors. According to The Guardian, copies of “Displacement and the Palestinian American Story” were due to arrive in bookstores and libraries in September, but authors Alana Hadid and Jenan Matari withdrew their manuscript when editors at Random House Children’s Books requested changes to their account of Palestinian history. The authors now plan to publish through Interlink Books, a Palestinian-owned U.S. publisher. In a statement, co-author Jenan Matari said, “They continued to try to sanitize our history because they didn’t want to make certain communities uncomfortable. But decolonial history is supposed to make you uncomfortable.”
