One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

by Omar El Akkad

From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet was viewed over 10 million times. 

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse. 

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries—America, the UK, France and Germany.  It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we’re undergoing a shift in the so-called ‘rules-based order,’ a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar’s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11. 

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Audiobook, Memoir, Social Justice, War

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2025

About the author

Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager and now lives in the United States. The start of his journalism career coincided with the start of the war on terror, and over the following decade he reported from Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and many other locations around the world. His work earned a National Newspaper Award for Investigative Journalism and the Goff Penny Award for young journalists. His fiction and non-fiction writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Guernica, GQ and many other newspapers and magazines. His debut novel, American War, is an international bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages. It won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award, the Oregon Book Award for fiction, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and has been nominated for more than ten other awards. It was listed as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, Washington Post, GQ, NPR, Esquire and was selected by the BBC as one of 100 novels that changed our world. His new novel, What Strange Paradise, was released in July, 2021 and won the Giller Prize, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award, the Oregon Book Award for fiction, and was shortlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. It was also named a best book of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR and several other publications. Omar lives near Portland, Oregon, where is on the faculty of the Pacific University MFA in Writing program.

Reviews

[Traci Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is fantastic. Some really beautiful and sharp writing on empire and the hypocrisy that makes empire possible and powerful. It’s smart how he anchors the book with Gaza and genocide and circled back through both personal essay, cultural touchstones, and other examples of empire sacrificing humans to save itself. The moral clarity is refreshing as hell.

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not sure I’ve ever finished a book and then immediately restarted it

[Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should 100% be required reading.

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

I'm so disappointed by this - after 50%, I have to give up on what I'm finding to be a self-indulgent and exploitative way to use the genocide in Palestine to market what is otherwise a personal memoir. I don't disagree with the points Akkad makes by any means - Western media and Liberalism have actively sought to erase Palestine and eradicate its citizens while hiding behind a virtuous persona. Language is a tool deliberately used to weaponize, undermine, and misrepresent marginalized groups (particularly those from the Middle East in a post-9/11 context).

I have an issue with this not in the subject or themes but in the execution. This is not well-written and alternates between a personal memoir and highlights from Palestine since October 7th, 2023. The two arcs have some thematic overlap, but I can't overlook the blatant hypocrisy in some of the storytelling choices this makes. The discourse is primarily focused on headlines or scant facts about the events in Palestine with virtually no references or sources. In the age of misinformation (deliberate or otherwise) AND about a subject that is so contentious to the general public, it is important to have reliable sources to support your claims. Otherwise, the content of the book can be easily dismissed as not being truthful or valid.

While I'm no expert on Palestine and every historical event leading up to the event of October 7th, I would expect a book about this to provide the reader with more historical context and meaningful discourse. The delivery of this feels like the quality and reputability I'd find in an Instagram carousel or substack article, not a published book with a hefty relative cost. Anyone who has kept up with the events in Palestine and done some critical thinking about Western media would find very little new information from this.

I struggle to even recommend this as a good introductory source to the recent portrayal of Palestine because it's so surface-level and broken up with Akkad's history which is largely unrelated. The systemic racism, xenophobia, and misrepresentation that immigrants like Akkad experience in the West is important, but this is hardly novel nor does it provide sufficient spotlight to Palestinians. It seems ironic Akkad spends so much time being critical of America for treating the Middle East as a monolith yet also implies that his own experiences mirror the recent events in Palestine. America is largely the culprit behind these tenuous international relations and acts of violence, but that doesn't make the experiences equal.

I'm glad some readers are finding value in this, as it spotlights some important issues that should act as catalysts for change, resistance, and reform to existing systems. With that said, I think there are considerably better resources on Palestine and I am disappointed with the approach this took to represent them.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is an admirable thing, in a politics possessed of a moral floor, to believe one can change the system from the inside, that with enough respectful prodding the establishment can be made to bend, like that famous arc, toward justice. but when, after decades of such thinking, decades of respectful prodding, the condition one arrives at is reticent acceptance of genocide, is it not at least worth considering that you are not changing the system nearly as much as the system is changing you?

the third of omar el akkad's books (following two award-winning novels), one day, everyone will have always been against this is an incisive, trenchant work about colonialism, slaughter and mass murder, western liberalism, state violence, hypocrisy, amorality, cowardice and privilege, apathy, institutional fealty, and, pardon the redundancy, the inherent effects of empire. with sharp, scathing, and often sardonic critique, el akkad reckons with the ongoing atrocities in gaza (and other assorted moral malfeasances), as well as the international, governmental, political, and organizational indifferences that de facto enable (if not outright support) their continuation.

the moral component of history, the most necessary component, is simply a single question, asked over and over again: when it mattered, who sided with justice and who sided with power? what makes moments such as this one so dangerous, so clarifying, is that one way or another everyone is forced to answer.

with unflinching clarity, moral resolve, historical contextualization, and a reliance on logic, reason, and basic human decency, el akkad's writing recalls the most potent works of chris hedges (both authors have spent time as war correspondents). one day, everyone will have always been against this braids the philosophical and the personal, with el akkad relating anecdotes and asides both from his days reporting overseas and more recent ones as a new father. el akkad writes far too beautifully for so sorrowful a subject — juxtaposing massacres, indignation, heartbreak, and anguish in language that persuades and entreats as it denounces. this is a work of courage and rectitude and virtue of the highest order, absolutely merciless in its calling to account.

one day there will be no more looking away. looking away from climate disaster, from the last rabid takings of extractive capitalism, from the killing of the newly stateless. one day it will become impossible to accept the assurances of the same moderates who say with great conviction: yes the air has turned sour and yes the storms have grown beyond categorization and yes the fires and the floods have made of life a wild careen from one disaster to the next and yes millions die from the heat alone and entire species are swept into extinction daily and the colonized are driven from their land and the refugees die in droves on the borders of the unsated side of the planet and yes supply chains are beginning to come apart and yes soon enough it'll come to our doorstep, even our doorstep in this last coddled bastion of the very civilized world, when one day we turn on the tap and nothing comes out and we visit the grocery store and the shelves are empty and we must finally face the reality of it as billions before us have been made to face the reality of it but until then, until that very last moment, it's important to understand that this really is the best way of doing things.

[Liz Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful argument that if the West is Star Wars, we are the empire, not the resistance.

[Nada Elshabrawy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The system does not work for you, was never intended to work for you, but as an act of magnanimity on our part, you may choose the degree to which it works against you.”

This book is an essential 2025 read. Well-written, thoroughly researched and devastatingly beautiful.

Highly recommended.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely essential reading. Moral clarity that cuts like a knife.

[Ameema S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and evocative, this was a short but impactful read that I stayed up way too late reading. This was a thoughtful, sharp, and powerful book that at turns critiques Western imperialism and neoliberalism, and offers a passage through collective grief into collective action. At times this was devastating, I saw much of myself and my own experiences in this book. Omar El Akkad’s words are a balm, to carry you through the heart of empire, while simultaneously functioning as a handful of sand that you can toss into the gears of the machine.

This was more affecting than expected. I think reading this as a Brown Muslim who now lives IN the empire (Canada), it was relatable in a profoundly visceral way. I like to highlight passages that I find powerful, and while read this, I decided to add tabs to each page with a quote or passage that moved me... My copy of this book is cluttered with tabs, and green with highlights. El Akkad is a talented writer, and there's no doubt about that. Each word and phrase and passage is written with care. He paints a portrait of grief and rage that articulates something many of us have been bearing.

I definitely don't think this book is for everyone. For some, it may feel obvious, or antithetical to their belief system. For some, they may feel called out, or uncomfortable. For some, this is a challenge to their desire to looking away, or perhaps even cheering for a system of violence that aims to quash, diminish, and destroy the 'other'. However, I think there are people who will find this book an answer, a balm, a meditation. Something to hold onto when things get difficult. Others may find it challenging, but hopefully in a way that galvanizes.

We talk a lot about reading and what it can do, and for me, one of the most important things reading can do for us is challenge us. To hold our systems of belief and our schools of thought up to the light - and maybe, just maybe, they won't hold up to additional scrutiny. And this book does that.

While this book was devastating, it also offered a path forward - through the grief, desolation, devastation, and range, and towards a new, better future. One of hope and community, and most importantly, love.

I look forward to the book being out in the world.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher.

[Ulla Scharfenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beim Bestellen und Abholen von "One day, everyone will have always been against this" in der Buchhandlung, haben beiden Personen hinterm Tresen unabhängig voneinander sowas gesagt wie "ja, das stimmt wohl". Eines Tages werden alle immer schon dagegen gewesen sein. Gegen den Genozid an den Palästinenser*innen. Doch eines Tages ist noch nicht. Heute sind viele noch nicht einmal bereit, die Verbrechen von Israels Regierung und Militär, die mit Unterstützung der USA (und auch Deutschland) begangen werden als solche zu benennen. Heute heißt es noch häufig, es sei "kompliziert". Eines Tages werden alle schon immer dagegen gewesen sein, aber heute erfahren die, die jetzt schon dagegen sind, Repressionen und Gewalt. Die, die protestieren und nicht mitmachen wollen in der Gleichgültigkeit angesichts 50.000 Getöteter, Hunderttausenden Verletzten, Millionen Vertriebenen, verlieren Jobs und Aufträge, werden verhaftet, geschlagen und zunehmend auch deportiert.

Omar El Akkad, kanadisch/us-amerikanischer Journalist und Schriftsteller, fasst in Worte wofür es kaum Worte gibt. Er beschreibt den Horror des Völkermords und den Horror, in einer Gesellschaft zu leben, die das Töten und Sterben ignoriert, es im schlimmsten Fall sogar rechtfertigt, gutheißt. Ja, es sei tragisch, aber notwendig, sagen die, die nicht um das Leben ihrer Angehörigen bangen. Denn "die Alternative ist Barbarei". Die Alternative zu den unzähligen Toten, den Verstümmelten und Waisen, ist Barbarei. Die Alternative zur Zerstörung der zivilen Infrastruktur, der Krankenhäuser, der Hilfsgüter, ist Barbarei.

Omar El Akkad schreibt nicht nur über Gaza. Es geht zum Beispiel auch um Guantanamo, um rassistische Polizeigewalt. Es geht um die Ideologie des Westens, die nie als "Ideologie" angesehen wird, sondern als "Zivilisation". Die rassistische Weltordnung, white supremacy, bedeutet, dass ganze Menschengruppen als weniger menschlich, als weniger schützenswert betrachtet werden, in dem getötete Kinder zwar als "tragisch" gelten, aber mehr auch nicht. Es ist ein System, in dem wir einfach weitermachen in unserer Normalität. In ein paar Jahrzehnten vielleicht, wenn alle, die Verantwortung tragen, längst nicht mehr zur Rechenschaft gezogen werden können, werden alle immer schon dagegen gewesen sein.

Omar El Akkad schreibt auch über die Verzweiflung und Ohnmacht der passiven Zuschauer*innen im sicheren "Westen". Über die Einsamkeit derer, die inmitten einer weißen Mehrheitsgesellschaft nicht mehr schlafen oder essen können, weil die Bilder des Genozids sie keine Sekunde loslassen, während um sie herum gefeiert, gelacht, publiziert, geheiratet, promoviert wird. "One Day" ist kein leichtes Buch, natürlich nicht. Ich war fast froh, dass es nach rund 180 Seiten vorbei war. Aber es wirkt nach. Ich bin froh, dass es im Mai bei Matthes&Seitz auf deutsch erscheint und ich hoffe, dass es viele, viele Leser*innen findet.

[Amy Biggart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten stars, easily one of the best books i’ll read this year and a book i would recommend everyone read

[nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

there's nothing else for me to say, he's said it all. it's a heartwrenching read, obviously, but it's also comforting to just know that you're not alone for thinking "how can we be expected to go along with this?"

[Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”

Review to come. A must read for all in 2025! Out feb 25. My endless gratitude to the publisher for the ARC.

[None Ofyourbusiness · Rating 1 out of 5]

Omar El Akkad’s latest is a tour de force of grievance tourism, a literary Rorschach test where every Israeli action is a genocide, every Palestinian civilian a saint, and every Western journalist a weeping martyr to the 'cause'.

With prose so melodramatic it makes Les Misérables read like a Twitter thread, El Akkad spins a narrative so one-dimensional it could double as a propaganda pamphlet for Hamas recruitment drives.

A tiresome, ideologically rigid screed masquerading as a legitimate exploration of conflict. The whole thing hinges on the book-cover-artwork depicting an intersection of a “palestinian” "journalist" and an Israeli drone, a contrivance so strained it borders on parody. El Akkad, an Egyptian-Canadian author whose earlier work American War showed glimmers of promise, here delivers a text so burdened by its own moralizing that it collapses under the weight of its pretensions. The journalist’s reflection, “We are all complicit in the silence that screams louder than bombs,” is emblematic of the book’s hollow grandstanding—a line that sounds profound but is utterly devoid of substance, much like the rest of the book. If anything, the silence is for the lack of condemnation of the heinous act of barbarity that started the misery which was wholly orchestrated, celebrated and perpetrated by Gazans.

The book’s historical inaccuracies are not merely errors; they are deliberate distortions designed to manipulate the reader. El Akkad falsely asserts that Israeli settlements in Gaza persisted two decades before the Hamas pogrom, a claim so blatantly false it undermines any pretense of credibility. His portrayal of the Oslo Accords as a unilateral Israeli imposition is equally misleading, erasing the negotiated nature of the agreements. The depiction of Gaza as a prelapsarian paradise before Israeli intervention is not just ahistorical; it is a grotesque oversimplification that ignores the region’s complex socio-political realities. One particularly egregious scene fabricates an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital in 2010, an event that never occurred but is rendered with such graphic detail that it feels less like proper reporting and more like vapid propaganda. The book’s antisemitic slant is impossible to overlook, with Israeli characters uniformly painted as malevolent oppressors while “palestinian” figures are sanctified to the point of absurdity. This one-sidedness is not just intellectually dishonest; it is a betrayal of the very principles of storytelling.

As a reader, I found the book’s audacity not bold but grating. El Akkad’s ambition is undercut by his inability to craft characters with any depth or nuance, reducing them to mere mouthpieces for his ideological agenda. The "down with the West" chants are predictable, relying on tired tropes of victimhood and villainy that offer no insight, only cliché.

The book’s “plot” is less a story than a feverish collage of cherry-picked tragedies—amputated legs, screaming children, severed heads—dripping with the emotional depth of a TikTok sob story. El Akkad’s genius lies in his ability to ignore context entirely, as if Israel’s existential battles with Hamas (a terrorist organization that deliberately uses civilians as human shields) are just “another round of shelling” in a cosmic game of “who’s more oppressed.” The Palestinians, of course, are perpetual victims, while Israelis are uniformly depicted as bloodthirsty maniacs who “blockade aid” because… "because they’re evil", apparently.

El Akkad’s writing is full of self-indulgence gems. Sentences like “the ground beneath me coming apart” and “the only thing that seems paramount is to spoil my kids” drip with the profundity of a barstool philosopher. His “analysis” of media bias? A predictable litany of “The Guardian called it ‘food aid–related deaths’” — as if any mention of Hamas’s role in provoking conflict is too much to ask.

Thankfully, El Akkad’s anti-Semitic rage against “Western complicity” in Israel’s “genocide” is so unhinged it inadvertently highlights the absurdity of blaming democracies for defending themselves against Hamas’s rockets. Who could forget his “brilliant” comparison of Israel’s security measures to South African apartheid? A stroke of genius, really, since Israel’s flawed but functioning democracy is nothing like the racist regime that imprisoned Nelson Mandela.

El Akkad’s wet dream moment comes when he gushes over the International Court of Justice’s politicized ruling against Israel. Never mind that the ICJ’s “evidence” includes Netanyahu quoting the Bible — a move so desperate it makes Hamas’s fake hospital complexes look legitimate. The book’s climax? A toddler’s finger painting titled “Palestinian statehood,” which El Akkad calls “a brief respite from duplicity.” Because nothing says “justice” like a toddler’s finger painting.

This book is a triumph of style over substance, a $25 cry for attention that mistakes outrage for analysis. El Akkad’s real talent? Writing himself into the role of a woke prophet, scolding the West for not caring enough about Palestinian suffering while ignoring Hamas’s role in perpetuating it. If you’re looking for an honest read, skip this and pick up a history textbook. Or better yet, a dictionary — El Akkad’s grasp of nuance is vocabulary-challenged.

A self-indulgent, one-sided tantrum that mistakes Hamas’s terrorism for “resistance” and Israel’s self-defense for “genocide.”

The book’s audience appears to be those already entrenched in its ideological camp, as it provides no challenge or complexity to provoke genuine thought.This is not just a bad book; it is a dangerous one, a cautionary tale of how literature can be weaponized to distort history and perpetuate division. One day everyone will see the genocidal antisemitic and colonial lies of HamAss.

[Zach Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's tough, this having come out around the same time as Mohammed El-Kurd's Perfect Victims, which is truly a masterpiece on how we navigate this world of genocide and betrayal. I was drawn to One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This from the title alone. But I found myself slightly disappointed in El Akkad's presentation of the power dynamics in U.S. politics, offering far too much excuse to the Democratic Party (even when his scorn is searing). He also seems to cling to credibility/respectability by frequently demonizing China and Russia, parroting lies about the former and Adrian Zenz's lies about Xinjiang; as well as his denouncement of the Palestinian resistance. There were moments I enjoyed which felt like the more poetic meditations on the psychological toll of this genocide: "no description of the moon, no matter how stunning, how true, reflects as much beauty back into the world as a missile obliterating a family in their home takes out of it."

[Steph | bookedinsaigon · Rating 2 out of 5]

[ 6 Mar 2025 ]

Yeah, no, this is not it. This took me AGESSSSS to finish, because I puzzled over nearly every paragraph, trying to figure out why this didn’t work for me. A carefully considered and analyzed full-length review will come later, but for now I’ll leave two questions here:

1. For a book that uses the Palestinian genocide as the springboard for all of its critique of Western liberal empire, where are the Palestinian voices?

2. Where are the facts, primary sources, bibliography, historical context, etc?

[Imogen Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

DAMN. I consider this mandatory reading for anyone who’s felt completely insane since the genocide in Palestine began to be live-streamed (as we know, it started BEFORE 10/7/23). I also consider this mandatory reading for those around them, who felt deeply and empathetically when they saw their friends post a video from a Palestinian journalist, or who would nod and say “it wasn’t just this past year” but who were able to compartmentalize the rest the of the time and never really committed to the idea that their government was at fault: this book holds up a mirror to Western sensibilities and asks them to consider, honestly, if they are truly offended by the notion they are complicit. Overall, really excellent narrative structure, beautiful prose, and if you listen to the audiobook, just the right amount of anguish in the narration. 10/10.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad is a bold, raw reckoning with Western ideals, their promises, and their failures. Written with passion and urgency, this book captures El Akkad’s profound disillusionment with a system that he feels has betrayed its promises, especially toward Black, brown, and Indigenous people. This disillusionment is something many Westerners may struggle to grasp fully, but El Akkad’s perspective is valuable for understanding the worldviews of those often marginalized or overlooked.

Reading this book felt intense, almost like being reprimanded by someone who has seen too much suffering and betrayal to stay silent. While El Akkad’s anger is at times overwhelming, his fury is born of experience, loss, and hard truths that demand to be acknowledged. As a white Midwestern man, I found myself grappling with some of his points, often feeling unable to fully relate but knowing his perspective is crucial and rooted in realities I may never fully experience or understand.

Though I don’t connect with his experiences directly, the book touched me on a fundamental level: as a human, I could empathize with his pain and frustration. And while I wouldn’t put my family or their well-being on the line for any ideology, I do believe this book serves as a powerful opportunity to listen to voices we seldom hear in mainstream narratives. This isn’t a book that seeks comfort or acceptance—it’s a challenge to see the cracks in Western ideals and the real impact of their shortcomings.

For anyone ready to confront these uncomfortable truths, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is worth the read. It’s thought-provoking and important, a true book for our time.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALC gifted by the publisher

Essays on the moral hypocrisy and apathy towards Palestinians in politics, journalism, and literary circles. While there isn’t anything new, it’s still an important collection to read that analyses how we got here and where we’re heading. I bookmarked so many hard-hitting sentences that brought me to tears

I recommend this book to readers who already have a good understanding of Palestinian history and are plugged in with the controversial reporting tactics/languages around reporting the “genocide/war/conflict”. The author uses these controversies without providing much background information, so I’ll urge those interested in reading this book to first read introductory Palestinian books and analyses on how sanitized western media is first before diving into ONE DAY

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Painful. Vitally important.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the start of 2025 comes the first wave of books published post October 7th. I have a handful of them on my radar and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This was the first of which to come in at the library. Unfortunately I found this to be a weak introduction to this new era of discourse on the subject of Palestine.

This sub 200 page book looks to accomplish a lot and overall barely scratches the surface doing so. Author Omar El-Akkad jumps between his personal background on immigrating, living in the Middle East and the West, his thoughts on journalism and the publishing industry, the contradictions of liberals, commentary on imperialism, and references to events of the last 17 months through the eyes of someone living in the west looking from afar.

Maybe I should have looked more into what this book entailed before reading it but when it comes to covering this subject this really isn’t the kind of book I look for. Personally, if I’m going to be spending my time reading about this subject I’d like to be learning something new, reading from the perspective of a journalist, researcher, activist, or eyewitness.

I found much of what was on display here to be rather surface level and scattered in its presentation. Throughout this short book’s chapters was a rotation of these subjects which was intended to paint a picture of various themes but overall lead to a very disjointed reading experience. The fast pace of this book also doesn't help as it leads to much of the discussion passing you by without any second thought put to it.

As someone who is an Arab American in the West who has spent the last 17 months absorbed in following these events I found much of what was presented here to be pretty limited in scope, a recap of what it was like living in 2024 at best. If you have also been following along and witnessing this genocide in real time you will already be well aware of the kinds of feelings evoked by baring witness to it. The events mentioned here really are only alluded to and will conjure memories of what you have seen in the last year and a half but that is really it.

This leads me to wonder who this book is really for? The kinds of people closely following the situation will probably already have eclipsed the need for a book like this and the kinds of people who might benefit most from something like this may be lost by not having the proper context or background, as there are no sources or references to event specifics. I can see the value and catharsis in relating to someone else when it comes to discussing these subjects but I would imagine many people have had these kinds of conversations already, with deeper substance, sometime in the last year and a half.

In October 2023, after about two weeks of witnessing nonstop violence, I knew I needed to find others to talk to about this and relate with. Since then I have joined many community groups and organizations who centralize around supporting each other during this time, caring for the community and offering a place for people to express their thoughts and emotions. I really don’t see how anyone could have made it through the last 17 months without this kind of community space or at the very least reaching out to a friend or two to have these kinds of conversations on their own.

The most egregious element of this book I've seen in its criticisms is El-Akkad's use of the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza in tandem with his own narrative as an Egyptian-Canadian immigrant and his experiences in Canada and the US. I get trying to relate to an event like this in any way that you can, as it is near impossible to make sense of the chaos in contradiction of so many individuals and institutions as of late but it still comes across as exploitative in telling your own story first as so little is actually devoted to the perspectives of those actually experiencing this first hand in Gaza.

Overall this book comes across as an elongated opinion piece that couldn’t find its place being published somewhere online. I’ve never recommended using social media over reading a book but I’ve seen much better presentations of these kinds of ideas and discussions from short form videos and infographics over the last few months (many of which also included sources and further discussion).

I will say that the book does get better in its presentation and purpose in the latter half. Particularly in the last two chapters. Instead of just broadly rehashing the last 17 months it looked more at the current climate and where to go in the future. I think this is a great value and the most one could get out of this book. El-Akkad offers a glimmer of hope in the face of extreme despair, something I think we could all use in this current moment. He drives home the point that no effort towards liberation is too small and that we all have an obligation to do our part.

Maybe I’m in the minority here, as many people seem to really love this book, but with all the great books on Palestine out there I think we should be allowed to be critical of those that don’t meet the mark, and not just praise them for having the same opinion as us. There are many great books by Palestinians, as well as researchers and activists who support them, that offer much more value in information. When it comes to a contemporary criticism of imperialism and white supremacy I found Ta-Nehesis Coates’s The Message to be a much better book. His balance of the personal with the bigger picture is presented much better and he is overall just a better writer.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This occasionally takes jabs at the performative actions of liberals (something I certainly don’t shy away from critiquing myself) but with how surface level some of the discussion here is I don’t see El-Akkad’s perspective as much different from those he is critiquing, just from a slightly farther left lens. If you are someone who is praising this book I would implore you to reflect on how you have engaged with this subject the last 17 months and what Palestinian Liberation truly means to you.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

With everything going on, mentally I don’t know that I was ready to read this. How do I write a review on a book that I don’t even know where to start. Am feeling overwhelmed, many thoughts, emotions.. altogether.. a heavy read.

[Rach A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never wanted to highlight and underline and write all over a book more. Devastatingly astute in its rending of the West.

[Peter Fox · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this book good-faith for the opportunity to challenge some of my perceptions of the Israel-Hamas war. What could have been a thoughtful critique is instead an exercise in intellectual dishonesty.

You’d think that a memoir on Gaza would be written by someone who at the very least is Palestinian. The author is Egyptian-Canadian based in Portland and centers himself in the narrative, using the war as a backdrop for his musings on geopolitics, power, and privilege. He has no direct connection to Palestine, yet positions himself as an authority on its struggle. He’s spent his career as a reporter—where are the Palestinian voices in this book?

The author notes how people look away from horror, yet he does exactly that when it comes to the horror of October 7. Nowhere does he acknowledge the Israeli families burned alive in their homes, the women raped, the concertgoers gunned down in cold blood. He gives a single passing mention of the hostages and number of Israelis killed and then moves on. The irony is staggering—he demands moral reckoning from others while refusing to confront the full scale of the terror that started this war.

Instead, he spends the bulk of the book scrutinizing Israel, waiting until the very end to clarify that he despises Hamas just as much as every other authoritarian regime.

His quick mention of Oct 7 is drowned in rhetorical sleight of hand, implying that Hamas’s brutality was somehow a logical, if tragic, response to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and how there’s a western bias for perceiving virtuous resistance vs the brutal massacre carried out by Hamas against civilians. This isn’t analysis—it’s moral obfuscation.

It’s frustrating, because a thoughtful, nuanced critique of the war is necessary. There was a real opportunity here to challenge assumptions, to engage in good faith, to bring something new to the table. Instead, the book repackages the same talking points that play well on social media but collapse under scrutiny. A missed opportunity, but hey—at least it’s well-written and short.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most important book I've read in a long time

[Jan Priddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was prepared to give this book five stars from the Preface. El Akkad did not let me down. It was listed as memoir, and before I opened it, I thought: surely not. But his personal story is woven through this powerful look at the failure of decency in the liberal West. Here is a moral accounting, the author's life used to illustrate his experience and understanding, his compassion and care—yes!—but also his desperation.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is one man's struggle, a father's struggle, an immigrant's struggle to detail the failure of what we call "the West" to establish a moral high ground, while claiming that position.

How does one finish the sentence: "It is unfortunate that tens of thousands of children are dead, but . . ."

The liberal west completes that sentence in the blood of butchered children. Don't look away.

There is a point in the life of some people, people who value honor and morality—those of us who feel it is both our duty and right to behave morally—when we understand that what is told about events is determined according to the convenience and self-interest of a few powerful people and with little connection to truth. Living today, we understand that our society's entire worldview is built upon elevating competition, power, and selfishness. "Survival of the fittest" allows the unfit to suffer. We are assured that no one expects people to "do the right thing," but only what benefits that "onward and upward" trajectory that we teach as status quo. Privileging those benefits over the rights of all other people is driven by our fear.

That fear is staged. We are meant to be fearful. In fear we believe the lies, we accept the cruelty, we collude in the genocide.

We fear we will lose what we have, we fear that we might someday lose what we have, we fear what is not ours, and we fear what is not us may deprive us of some negligible future we believe we have been promised. We are taught there are winners and losers, and we fear to become the latter. Better someone else should lose and not at our expense.

Families can be run this way, with one clear winner—imagine it is the father who receives the best of everything, the quiet, the support, the best piece of chicken at dinner—and the rest of the family sees to that privilege and takes whatever scraps of attention and care and food are left.

Many families are run another way, where the needs of each person—parents, grandparents, children—are equally considered and served. Each family contributes what it can and receives what is needed.

I attended Omar El Akkad's reading in Portland, and bought two copies only because I didn't dare put a dozen copies on my charge account. The last time I felt this way was after reading Shaun Tan's The Arrival. Art Saves Lives. So later, I bought another copy and began loaning it to people I care about.

Save lives. Chose humanity. Choose to tell truth.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt a visceral jolt when I instantly recognized myself among those described by the author as “…the well-meaning liberal who…can shrug their shoulders and say, Yes, it’s all so very sad, but you know, it’s all so very complicated.” My god, I think I used almost exactly those words when I was talking with a friend recently about what’s happening in Gaza. The author’s point in this extended essay is that it’s not that complicated, that what’s currently taking place in Gaza is genocide and that the Western world not only refuses to condemn it but actually supports it. (In today’s news: the Trump administration is yanking $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University for its “failure to protect Jewish students from harassment” in the wake of last year’s student-led campus protests over the war in Gaza.) This is a passionately argued cri de coeur to stop the ongoing slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza.

[Sanjida · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sharp, crystalline artifact of moral clarity. El Akkad isn't interested in persuasion. Unlike Coates, he knows he won't even be invited to the debates. He's putting a stake in the ground. This is the truth of Omelas. On the other side of a US election, when the stakes are even higher to speak up, it's no less true.

[Aly Lauck · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important books I’ve ever read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

El Akkad's writing brings to mind Ta Nehisi Coates, another voice speaking truth to power. He is angry at the hypocrisy of the western world. How uncivilized the so-called civilized world is, choosing convenience over compassion.

"A world that shrugs at one kind of slaughter has developed a terrible immunity. No atrocity is too great to shrug away now, the muscles of indifference having been sufficiently conditioned."

Read from the page and listened to the audiobook, read by the author.

It's no easy feat to write a book like this, or to publish it. Thank you Omar El Akkad and McClelland & Stewart.