Omar El Akkad spoke at McNally Robinson in Winnipeg on March 9, 2025 about his book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This .
In November 2023, El Akkad signed an open letter which in addition to calling for the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails (including convicted terrorists), demanded that literary institutions “urge Israel to end the 75-year occupation of Palestine.” The use of the phrase "75 years of occupation" suggests to me that El Akkad does not accept Israel's right to exist, such that the Jewish people, like other peoples have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. His X (formerly Twitter) account contains multiple posts in the week after October 7, 2023, which condemn Israel’s response, but none condemn Hamas’s Oct 7 massacre, it’s taking of hostages including children and babies, and it’s war crimes.
El Akkad, a journalist, was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, immigrated to Canada and now lives in the United States.
Before El Akkad spoke, an owner of McNally Robinson, Chris Hall praised the book. There were some Jewish/Israeli demonstrators outside of McNally while El Akkad spoke. There was no formal question period after the talk, which was also recorded and is on youtube. (Note on Feb 9, 2025 the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (CPAM), whose President is Ramsey Zeid, posted on its facebook page a post telling people among other things not to forget to thank McNally Robinson for " stocking all the Pro Palestinian books." )
At no point in his presentation was El Akkad critical of Hamas. While Akkad puts the blame for the state of affairs in Gaza solely at Israel’s doorstep, it should be noted that there are number of voices in the Arab world with views that counter El Akkad’s.
As Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib a Palestinian-American blogger, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council wrote on X “The right of return is a fantasy; perpetual refugee status for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is a hindrance to nation-building; armed resistance continues to be an epic failure and a massive waste of resources and lives that result in more loss of land and opportunities; a Jewish state is a permanent part of the land and must be accepted for the Palestinians to have a free, prosperous future; and political adventurism and suicidalism can no longer be tolerated given the massive implications they pose to the average Palestinian.”
Egyptian journalist Emad Adeeb told Sky News Arabia (UAE) on Feb. 26: "Hamas with its weapons is unacceptable both internationally and by the Arabs. Let me be honest with you, Hamas has become a burden upon the Palestinian cause….If Hamas insists on keeping its weapons, there will be no reconstruction in Gaza. If Hizbullah insists on keeping its weapons, there will be no reconstruction in Lebanon, and the displaced people will not return [to their homes]."
If Hamas "prefers its weapons, it will have to face the 2.1 million people [of Gaza] who are looking for food, drink, and sewage services….You cannot make the decisions and expect me to pay the bill….You accepted the Iranian invitation, so let the Iranians pay the bill." (MEMRI-TV)
As Dr Qanta A. Ahmed , a British-American Muslim, and Associate Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York has written recently of Hamas and its supporters, “The violence, debasement, and gratuitous mutilation of the Jewish person in life and even after death, the sexual violation of women, the taking of civilians as hostages and their maltreatment in captivity, all are profound violations of all Islamic values and a stain upon all Islam.”
He concludes, “Those Muslims who support Hamas are accomplices. The time for Hamas to meet its Maker has arrived.”
As John Aziz, British Palestinian writer has written recently (substack) “We urgently need a resolution to the conflict, one that would recognise the national and individual rights of both Zionists and Palestinian Arabs.
But characterising this conflict as colonisation of Palestine by Israel is just not an accurate description.
My fear is that this dishonesty around the nature of the conflict will simply perpetuate and exacerbate the conflict. If the proposed solution to the so-called colonisation of Palestine by Zionists is for Israel to be dismantled, and the Jewish Israelis to be deported to wherever their ancestors migrated from, then the conflict is insoluble.
Jewish Israelis will never accept this, because it is simply a repeat of what was imposed on their ancestors unjustly by the Roman Empire."
Some of these views may have been presented in a formal question period had such a question period been allowed.
