Simon & Schuster is doubling down on publishing a notoriously Jew-hating writer, with a top editor issuing a statement that denounced antisemitism but also said that the publisher's plans to reissue two books by the writer, Susan Abulhawa—who refers to Jews as roaches—would go forward and that Abulhawa's "personal views are her own."
The publisher, one of the "Big Five" who dominate book publishing in the English-speaking world, remains on track to rerelease two of Abulhawa's novels, Mornings in Jenin and The Blue Between Sky and Water, on Sept. 29, 2026, through its Atria imprint. Mornings in Jenin has been strongly criticized for antisemitic content.
The publisher has been less tolerant of conservatives. Simon & Schuster canceled a book by Republican senator Josh Hawley (Mo.) after Jan. 6, 2021, and also scrapped a 2017 book by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos after coming under enormous pressure from its liberal clients.
In July, Simon & Schuster—whose founders were Jewish—said in a press release that it would republish two books by Abulhawa, who, in addition to calling Jews roaches, has also denounced them as "demons," "vampires," and "ghouls" and threatened vengeance against them.
In a press statement trumpeting the deal, the publisher praised Abulhawa's "signature lyrical voice."
Abulhawa, who was born in Kuwait but lives outside Philadelphia, is a "poet, essayist, scientist, mother, and activist," her Simon & Schuster author page reads.
News of the deal was first published by the Washington Free Beacon. After ignoring multiple inquiries from the Free Beacon, Simon & Schuster ultimately issued a statement to one of their writers, Gerald Posner, who was preparing an essay about the imbroglio for the Free Press.
"Simon & Schuster unequivocally opposes antisemitism, racism, and all forms of bigotry," said former CEO Jonathan Karp, who now heads the company's Simon Six imprint.
But Karp made it clear the book was still coming.
"We remain committed to publishing a broad range of voices and viewpoints," Karp said. "Susan Abulhawa's personal views are her own and are not reflective of Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, or its employees."
Neither Karp nor his replacement as CEO, Greg Greeley, responded to multiple requests for comment from the Free Beacon.
In addition to re-releasing Abulhawa's books, Simon & Schuster's Atria imprint this week also released Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, which the publisher touts as an "unflinching exposé" of how Israel developed a "controlling interest in United States foreign policy." As part of its promotion of the book, Simon & Schuster has released a virulently anti-Israel video in which the book's authors describe Israel as "a toxic issue."
Simon & Schuster gave their statement to Posner, one of their authors, who had objected strongly to Abulhawa's book deal, saying that Abulhawa had "waged a veritable war on Jews."
"There is no doubt that Simon & Schuster would never sign any celebrated novelist who had posted publicly that Muslims were parasites, vampires, demons, and ghouls," Posner wrote, saying he would be done with the publisher if Abulhawa's deal went through.
"Simon & Schuster can publish whomever it likes," Posner went on. "It doesn't mean its authors have to reflexively support that decision. If it stands by Abulhawa's noxious views, I will sadly look for another publisher. And I hope that other authors might do the same."
Abulhawa's Mornings in Jenin, previously known by the antisemitic title The Scar of David, was described by the French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy as "a concentration of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish clichés masquerading as fiction." As for her other book being reissued by Simon & Schuster, The Blue Between Sky and Water, Kirkus review wrote that readers' enjoyment "will mostly depend on how they react to Abulhawa's violently anti-Israel and slightly milder anti-American perspectives."
Abulhawa first came to wide public attention after the Free Beacon revealed that Rama Duwaji, the N-word-slinging, October 7-celebrating wife of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.), had provided illustrations for an essay published in the Abulhawa-compiled anthology Every Moment Is a Life.
Abulhawa's track record of attacking Jews stretches back years.
"We live in the time of jewish supremacist demons," Abulhawa said in a September 2025 post on X, adding that Jews were a "cultureless, rootless human aberration."
In September 2025, she blasted another critic as a "lying Jewish supremacist cockroach" and attacked "dual loyalty zionists," citing former Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis as an example.
In November 2025, Abulhawa called Israelis "demonic parasites," adding that "Israel must be dismantled if humanity is going to have any chance at a moral future." In another post she said, "We will have our revenge someday," against the "sons of satan."
Abulhawa's deranged rantings were so bad that even Mamdani denounced her as "reprehensible" during a press conference on March 13.
Abulhawa has never once moderated or walked back past comments—with projectile bile continuing unabated even after Simon & Schuster announced the new partnership.
In a July 31 post on X Abulhawa declared that the Holocaust had "lost its meaning" and that "the whole world is sick of hearing about it."
"These clowns invoke that genocide with every perceived slight," Abulhawa complained. "There is an extreme overrepresentation of Jews in every branch of government, media, and culture."
Abulhawa's partnership with Simon & Schuster has been condemned by Jewish groups across the ideological divide—including the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League.
"Susan Abulhawa, an unabashed antisemite who traffics in antisemitic tropes and glorifies terrorism gets a book deal," ADL boss Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement posted to X. "Meanwhile, Jewish authors increasingly face campaigns to boycott, blacklist, and silence them, while bookstores, festivals, and other cultural institutions face pressure to exclude or distance themselves from Jewish and Zionist voices."
"We're reaching a point where opposing antisemitism can carry a greater professional cost than promoting it," Greenblatt went on.
While Karp—a 16-year veteran of Simon & Schuster—refused to give an inch on Abulhawa, the company has been more than happy to bend their principles against conservative authors whose deeds and actions have offended "woke" sensibilities.
After riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Simon & Schuster axed a book by Hawley, citing "our larger public responsibility as citizens." The book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, was later published by Regnery.
Hawley's office did not respond to request for comment from the Free Beacon.
In 2017, Simon & Schuster canceled a book by Yiannopoulos after he made comments questioning age-of-consent laws (the publisher had come under heavy pressure from its liberal writer corps for having given a six-figure advance to Yiannopoulos, who had said that "feminism is cancer"). The book, Dangerous, was later self-published.
Perhaps most famously, Simon & Schuster in 1990 canceled publication of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho amid outrage over the book's depiction of violence against women. Random House eventually published the book, now considered one of the most influential novels of its era.
This week, Simon & Schuster also published Great and Unfortunate Things, a memoir by disgraced former Cambridge professor and serial fabulist Jason Arday. The publisher performed significant cleanup before publication in an attempt to make the tome more believable, as revealed by the Free Beacon.
Simon & Schuster's author page for the book still calls it "a powerful story for our moment" and still refers to Arday as "Professorial Chair of Education"—a position he was forced to give up last week after being publicly exposed. The publisher has made changes to the book's page on Amazon, removing references to Arday's Cambridge job and scrapping an effort to compare Arday's book to author Tara Westover's Educated, a massive bestseller.
Despite the 11th-hour edits—uncovered by the Free Beacon—Arday's memoir is still getting clobbered by journalists and reviewers for lacking credibility.
Simon & Schuster was purchased by KKR, a large private equity firm, in October 2023.
KKR co-CEOs Joseph Bae and Scott Nuttall were emailed a detailed list of Albulhawa's past statements. Neither returned a request for comment from the Free Beacon.
