Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A 2025 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Part activist memoir, part crash course in Jewish and Palestinian history, Genocide Bad dismantles Zionist propaganda in ten unapologetic essays. Drawing connections between Biblical promises and exploding pagers, medieval dress codes and modern-day apartheid, Kern sketches a sweeping history of imperialism with their characteristic blend of far-ranging research, pop-culture insights, and scathing humor.

Kern, a former teacher, journalist, novelist, and book influencer, gained international recognition as an anti-Zionist Jewish activist in the days after October 7th, 2023. At a time when social media was flooded with “I Stand with Israel” posts, Kern started sharing content encouraging their followers to read Palestinian books, learn Palestinian history, and question Western reporting on Palestine—videos which went viral into tens of millions of views.

Despite facing hate messages, death threats, and exile from the Zionist Jewish community, Kern has remained steadfast in their advocacy over the past year. They’ve posted daily videos on Palestinian, Jewish, and colonial history, and they’ve raised over $500,000 in direct aid for families in Gaza—all while navigating the challenges of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting a newborn. In Genocide Bad, Kern reflects on the life experiences that led them to anti-Zionist activism, while capturing and expanding upon their online educational content.

Kern doesn’t flinch when confronting the horrors of genocides past and present, but there is also tremendous hope contained in these pages—hope that springs from examples of courage and resilience in the face of extreme violence, and from the kinds of resistance that might just lead to our collective liberation.

Sim Kern is the New York Times bestselling author of Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation and The Free People’s Village, a USA Today bestseller and Indie Next Pick. Their debut horror novella, Depart, Depart!, was selected for the Honor List for the 2020 Otherwise Award. As a journalist, book influencer, and anti-Zionist Jewish activist, Kern has used their social media platform to share educational content about politics and power and has raised more than half a million dollars in direct aid for families in Gaza since 2023.