Omar El Akkad and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

In a world overwhelmed by crises, where the stories of victims are often drowned in a sea of headlines, Omar El Akkad once again raises his voice—urgent, unrelenting, and unforgettable. His latest work, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, is more than just a book. It's a passionate call to confront the realities of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West’s complicated, often hypocritical, response. But this is not simply a political analysis—it’s a deep dive into the human condition, a sharp critique of Western narratives, and an unflinching look at who we choose to hear and how we choose to remember.

Omar El Akkad has built his literary reputation on bridging the deeply personal with the devastatingly political. Born in Egypt, raised in Canada, and shaped by his career as a war correspondent, El Akkad has a distinct ability to cut through the noise of global crises and reveal the human stories buried beneath. His earlier books, American War and What Strange Paradise, made it clear: he’s not just a writer—he’s a chronicler of the unseen. With One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, El Akkad takes another step forward, examining the intersections of politics, media, and morality with his hallmark mix of compassion and unflinching honesty.

The Layers Beneath: Nothing Is Simple Here

From its title alone, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This signals its intent to provoke. The book isn’t a straightforward essay or a typical narrative—it’s a genre-defying combination of investigative journalism, literary reflection, and biting moral critique. Rather than simply outlining the historical and political facts of the crisis in Gaza, El Akkad dives into the construction of narratives: the unspoken hypocrisies and self-serving frameworks that define how the West responds to suffering. Why do atrocities go unnoticed until they become politically inconvenient? Why are the victims reduced to numbers, their stories erased in the process?

The title encapsulates the Western tendency to retroactively claim moral opposition—"we were always against this"—without acknowledging complicity or the failure to act in real time. It’s a profound indictment of performative solidarity that spares no one.

Gaza as Both a Microcosm and a Mirror

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world—a place defined by blockade, violence, and unimaginable suffering. It would be easy for a book about Gaza to feel overwhelming, its subject too vast to fully grasp. But El Akkad humanizes the region without simplifying it, using Gaza not only as a case study in human endurance but as a mirror to reflect the moral failures of the global system.

El Akkad portrays Gaza not just as a place of pain but as a lens that reveals how the world works: who gets to tell their story, who gets to survive, and who is forgotten. It challenges readers to go beyond the headlines and confront the systems of power and neglect that perpetuate such crises.

Omar El Akkad: Narrator of the Unseen

What makes Omar El Akkad’s work so vital is his unwavering commitment to telling the stories of the marginalized. These are not the voices of politicians or pundits, but of the everyday people who bear the brunt of global conflicts. These voices are rarely heard, often drowned out by geopolitics, media spin, or sheer disinterest.

El Akkad’s previous works demonstrated this commitment to humanizing the abstract. In American War, he imagined a dystopian future America torn apart by climate change and war—yet the novel’s power came from its deeply personal exploration of grief, loyalty, and survival. In What Strange Paradise, he cast a searing light on the global refugee crisis, filtering it through the eyes of a child, forcing readers to confront the innocence and helplessness of those caught in systems beyond their control.

With One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, El Akkad turns his lens toward Gaza, but the questions he raises extend far beyond. How do we decide what suffering matters? How do media narratives shape public perception? How do we reconcile our values with our inaction?

Why This Book Matters Now

The timing of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This couldn’t be more critical. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while ongoing for decades, has often been overshadowed by other global events or dismissed as unsolvable. El Akkad’s book cuts through this fatigue, reminding us that complacency and selective empathy are not natural states—they are choices. By refusing to confront these realities, we become complicit.

This isn’t an easy book to read, nor is it meant to be. It’s a fierce mirror held up to Western apathy, inviting readers to reflect on their own assumptions and biases. Why do we pay more attention to some tragedies than others? How will history judge the current moment—and will we be on the right side of it, or merely claim to have been after the fact?

A Necessary Wake-Up Call

With One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad solidifies his place as one of the most important voices of our time. This is not a book that comforts—it disturbs, it provokes, it confronts. And that is precisely its purpose. El Akkad reminds us that behind every statistic is a human story, and behind every story lies a choice: to pay attention, or to look away.

His work challenges us to see the world differently—to stop accepting the narratives fed to us and start asking harder questions. Above all, he prompts us to act, to refuse the luxury of indifference.

El Akkad’s writing is a reminder that while the world can be overwhelming, it is not beyond change. But change begins with acknowledging the truth—and Omar El Akkad doesn’t let us look away.