One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

De: Omar El Akkad

Narrado por: Omar El Akkad

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 PALESTINE BOOK AWARDS • From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values

"[A] bracing memoir and manifesto."—The New York Times

“I can’t think of a more important piece of writing to read right now. I found hope here, and help, to face what the world is now, all that it isn’t anymore. Please read this. I promise you won’t regret it.”—Tommy Orange, bestselling author of Wandering Stars and There There

On October 25, 2023, 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 has been viewed more than 10 million times.

As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human—not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage.

This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.

©2025 Omar El Akkad (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"It is difficult to understand the nature of a true rupture while it is still tearing through the fabric of our world. Yet that is precisely what Omar El Akkad has accomplished, putting broken heart and shredded illusions into words with tremendous insight, skill and courage. A unique and urgently needed book." —Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger

“[A] bracing memoir and manifesto.... With precision and passion, [El Akkad] compels readers to close the emotional distance between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and to consider the immense suffering of civilians with renewed urgency.”—The New York Times

“A bracing case for empathy.... What would it take to render a horror ‘over there’ equally real to one ‘over here’? How do we lie to ourselves so convincingly, and what is the cost of those lies? These questions burn and throb with a haunting clarity [in One Day].... El Akkad is ... a moral meteorologist.... It reminds me of a story I heard once, about the late Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer, who was asked why he makes films that preach to the choir. It is because the choir must be fortified, he answered. El Akkad is tending to an exhausted choir, so that its song may ring clear.”—Elamin Abdelmahmoud, The Washington Post

Western liberalism’s broken moral compass

Omar El Akkad’s “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” is a profound and unflinching examination of Western liberalism’s moral contradictions, particularly in response to the devastation in Gaza. El Akkad, drawing from his rich background as a journalist and novelist, offers a collection of ten interrelated essays that weave personal narrative with incisive critique. His measured yet impactful prose challenges readers to confront the ethical implications of silence and complicity in the face of systemic violence.

Glimmer of Hope

I liked it all. It should be required reading for everyone. Despite being one of those liberal yard sign owners who even flies a Palestinian flag, it is hard to accept how hypocritical and dishonest we Americans are regarding the plight of not only the Palestinians but all those less fortunate than ourselves. It so important understand that we must be willing to give up something, perhaps even a lot, to implement change. The country is going down an even darker path than when this book was published. The time to stand up is now. It is the ending of the book that at least gives me some hope that we can change. Because despite all the horror and atrocities he has seen and experienced, the author still finds a glimmer of hope in the goodness of mankind. I surely hope he’s right.

Exquisite

The book was an exquisite articulation of all of the hypocrisies of the current moment - in particular the genocide of Palestinians while the world watches and does nothing.

Complete and truthful assessment of current situation in Gaza

Every sentence spoke thousand words. This book needs to be studies and not just read. I found it extremely raw, honest and descriptive of exactly what is currently happening in Gaza and US involvement.

An essential read

Spectacularly written. This book boldly says what millions of us are feeling and thinking as we watch a genocide unfold before our eyes

*they* benefit from our fragmentation

Skip the news cycle. I look for art to speak truth to life. This is some of the best writing I've heard in a while. Thank you.

Made me feel pain and shame

A powerful indictment of those of us who watch atrocity without action or worse support the horror. As a youth of the 60’s I took real risk and accepted condemnation in the civil rights movement, lost friends, got hit more than a few times. Today I stay silent when I know that is wrong-/keeps my life easy. My grandkids, many in college, would never think of protesting anything. Play it safe. This book goes next to them

an honest view of the world during the genocide!

Omar El Akkad beautifully describes the current world, news, events, people's behaviors, people's resistance, racism, empirical oppression on many countries, colonization and occupation, and the current atrocities and the genocide in Gaza. He spoke my mind. I listened to the audio book and ordered a copy to annotate it.

Stop participating

This was life changing. Seeing how these narratives play out in real time so that we can justify the atrocious has always been a mystery. But because of this book, no longer.

Thank you 🙏🏽

Everything about this book was everything we all need to know, hear, consider, and act upon.