One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Published: February 25, 2025 by Knopf
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Synopsis:
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.
Rating:
Review:
When I cracked open this book I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Obviously I knew about the subject matter, you’d have to be living under a rock to not be aware of it. I also knew that this book was heavily divisive almost exclusively along political lines. Which I thought was weird, the situation in Palestine is non-political. It is a human issue. But that view of it was naive on my part. Unfortunately we live in a world where morals are political. Treatment of other humans depends on our political affiliation. And that is where this book got it right.
El Akkad came in with pure, straight facts. He describes Israel as an empire that is determined to treat the people in Gaza like criminals simply for existing. He points out that yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization. But, while western media likes to portray the people in Gaza as willing participants in Hamas’ rule, they are just as much under the thumb of Hamas as they are Israel. He poignantly points out that western democracies ignore these facts and atrocities because it is too politically inconvenient to try and hold an “ally” accountable.
At times the book got repetitive, but I understand why. The author wants to expound on the same point repeatedly to make sure that his point gets across. It also highlights that portraying people who are “Middle Eastern” or Muslim as being less than human is not a new tactic to the west. We’ve been doing it for decades. Which just makes it even easier to ignore atrocities. Because those people are bad. Those people are not like us. So we wrap ourselves in silence and use that as an excuse.
This was an uncomfortable book to read, which is exactly what it should be. If it doesn’t make you uncomfortable then you didn’t get the point. In the end there is nothing earth shattering in here, but it’s a very good primer on the Gaza situation.