Omar El Akkad's Book on Gaza War Wins US National Book Award

Egyptian-Canadian author Omar El Akkad has won the 2025 National Book Award for nonfiction for his debut work ‘One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This’. The National Book Awards, presented annually in the United States for books published within the country, remain among the most prominent global prizes for fiction and nonfiction.

Published in February 2025, ‘One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This’ marks El Akkad’s first full-length nonfiction book. The work examines the international community’s response—or lack of response—to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, interweaving political analysis with personal narrative. Critics praised the book upon release for its clarity, its forceful moral argument, and its challenge to dominant western liberal frameworks.

The book’s title originates from a tweet El Akkad posted shortly after the war began, which has since amassed more than 10 million views: “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.”