One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Omar El Akkad thematisiert darin nicht nur den Genozid in Gaza, sondern vor allem auch den Umgang des Westens damit. Trotz tagtäglicher Schreckensbilder, eines Urteils des internationalen Gerichtshofs etc. ist unfaire, einseitige Berichterstattung in den Medien, Doppelmoral in der Politik und Cancel Culture im Kulturbetrieb nach wie vor die Regel, wenn es um Palästina geht. El Akkad bezieht sich in seinem Text vor allem auf Nordamerika, vieles kann man aber auch auf Europa umlegen. Seine Argumentation ist gut nachvollziehbar und überzeugt durch eine klare Sprache und konkrete Beispiele, dabei kommt ihm ohne Zweifel seine journalistische Erfahrung zugute. Durch Anekdoten aus seiner Kindheit in Katar und Kanada sowie aus seiner Karriere als Auslandskorrespondent verleiht er dem Buch auch eine persönliche Note.

DNF at ~130 pages. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book, especially because it takes on a topic of immense urgency and moral weight: the ongoing violence against Palestinians and the ways the West remains complicit or silent. Or at least, that’s what I believed when I started reading. In reality, what I found was a broad critique of 'the West', set against the backdrop of the ongoing genocide. I ended up DNFing the book after trying to push through it again and again, for several reasons: 1. I didn’t vibe with the writing style at all. For me personally, it was difficult to engage with. I often couldn’t tell what point the author was trying to make or where the argument was going. The structure felt jumbled, with various parts stitched together without a clear line of thought guiding the reader through. 2. No real new insights. I actively engage in discourse on 'the West' and enjoy hearing people bring up all kinds of points — good, bad, and worse — and reflecting on them. So for me, this book felt like a light brushing over of arguments I’ve heard a million times before, only communicated less effectively. 3. Near-total lack of citations. You either have to take everything the author says at face value or waste your time trying to figure out where the quotes came from and whether they can be verified, which, frankly, the author should have done. Good luck finding an Israeli newspaper article from 2014 that’s quoted but not cited. I expect more from a book. This level of sourcing (or lack thereof) I can excuse in a rushed opinion piece, but not here. 4. Extreme black-and-white thinking. You know the drill: 'the West' is bad, and no one there has any “real personal stakes”, so people in the West should drop everything and do exactly what people like the author demand. Because how dare you have problems you consider important or vote for an imperfect party out of fear of losing your own rights. There is an ongoing genocide, haven't you heard? I could go on, but I’ve already spent too much time on a book that preaches to the choir, makes little effort to persuade or inform, and offers no deeper understanding of the complex issues it claims to tackle.

1/5 of the book does what it promises; to address the conflict in Gaza, the rest focused on the author's career, and political underpinnings and societal criticism that prevents many countries and people from empathising with Palestinians' daily tragedies.