Quote from 'Don't Say Palestine'

The following is the start of Assal Rad's new book, Don't Say Palestine: How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide. I've so far read a tenth of the book, which was released on Tuesday. It's well written. Rad's words and style reminds me dearly of how Noam Chomsky writes; Rad picks up much from the Edward S. Herman/Chomsky book Manufacturing Consent. The rest of this post is the start of Rad's book. In May 2021, I was reading the news on my phone when a headline stopped me, not because it shocked me, but because it carried the familiar tone that Western media outlets have perfected in constructing their narrative of Palestine. The article was about Palestinians being forced out of their homes in East Jerusalem. I remember pausing, then rereading the headline and subhead to take in the careful linguistic choices and the essential information that was missing. As a historian of the region, I was not surprised to see the way the media reflected the official account of their…