Latest news with #EveryoneWillHaveAlwaysBeenAgainstThis
The National
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Nelson Mandela to Gaza: This is our legacy of global resistance
Now, his prophecy, from the title of his book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, is coming true. Last week saw the Financial Times coming out with an excoriating editorial titled 'The West's shameful silence on Gaza'. It read: 'After 19 months of conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and drawn accusations of war crimes against Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is once more preparing to escalate Israel's offensive in Gaza. READ MORE: This is why I decided to boycott Genocide: The Song Contest The latest plan puts Israel on course for full occupation of the Palestinian territory and would drive Gazans into ever-narrowing pockets of the shattered strip. It would lead to more intensive bombing and Israeli forces clearing and holding territory, while destroying what few structures remain in Gaza. This would be a disaster for 2.2 million Gazans who have already endured unfathomable suffering. Each new offensive makes it harder not to suspect that the ultimate goal of Netanyahu's far-right coalition is to ensure Gaza is uninhabitable and drive Palestinians from their land. For two months, Israel has blocked delivery of all aid into the strip. Child malnutrition rates are rising, the few functioning hospitals are running out of medicine, and warnings of starvation and disease are growing louder.' Speaking in front of the House of Commons on Tuesday, Conservative MP Mark Pritchard condemned Israel for its actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. 'I have supported Israel, pretty much at all costs,' said Pritchard. 'But today, I want to say that I got it wrong.' READ MORE: Ruth Wishart: Starvation is not a strategy. It's a war crime Edward Leigh (Tory MP) said: 'I've been a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel for more than 40 years – but you cannot starve a whole people. Many of us are asking: when is a genocide not a genocide?' Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart made another podcast, this time saying what was happening was 'utterly unacceptable and beyond the pale'.Even David Cameron's former national security adviser, Lord Peter Ricketts, is publicly calling for a full arms embargo. It's easy to understand these conversions as disgracefully, shamelessly late in the day, and they human death toll is a stain on humanity, and nothing has been salvaged by these words which are empty and ring hollow next to the moral abyss we are witnessing. But people have vested interests, fixed views of the world, people are old and tired and stupid. Even when presented with 'facts' over and over and over, they resist accepting reality. We know this. We live in a world where people would rather pretend that climate change wasn't happening than do something about Tsakraklides calls it the 'joy of self-destruction'. 'Sometimes we choose self-sabotage over fighting a battle we can't win,' he writes. 'Giving up is a desperate but effective attempt to convince ourselves that we still have full control – we lost the battle not because we lost it, but because we chose not to fight it. Or at least, that's what we tell ourselves. Defeatism is incredibly convenient – no more exertion, expectation, procrastination, guilt or regret for not having done enough. Surrender has the sweet taste of finality, and reaching rock bottom offers the bizarre reassurance that you can't possibly fall any lower. So why make an effort when you will probably be disappointed? Ultimate defeat can be just as addictive as victory. In both cases, the struggle is over – there is no more nail-biting anticipation, obligation or expectation.' This is not true in the case of Israel, where we ('we' the West) have known what should be done for a long time but have chosen not to. It is true that events and breakdown are overwhelming, as Naomi Klein puts it: 'It is difficult to understand the nature of a true rupture while it is still tearing through the fabric of our world.' But now even the institutions of the establishment media, the placid, reassuringly dumb voices of Campbell and Stewart and even Conservative Friends of Israel are so appalled by what they are witnessing as to be speaking out. READ MORE: Humza Yousaf tells Anas Sarwar: Labour immigration plan would've blocked our families We are now in a situation such as we had in the 1980s with opposition to apartheid in South Africa and at the beginning of the century when opposition to the Iraq war became huge (the Glasgow anti-Iraq war march was 2003).Each of these are situations where opposition to British foreign policy is so deep and entrenched it has become a significant factor in the politics of the country. For all the lobbying and policy capture, for all the paid trips to Israel and the media bias, the awful reality has seeped through and been realised by the mass of the imagery is relentless, the scale of the barbarity unquestionable. On Friday night, the Israeli air force killed at least 58 Palestinians in new attacks on Gaza, reports Reuters. United Nations secretary-general António Guterres called yesterday for a permanent and immediate ceasefire in Gaza after Israel announced early stages of an intensified operation on the Palestinian territory. 'We need a permanent ceasefire, now,' Guterres told leaders gathered in Baghdad for an Arab League summit. 'I am alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more.' Guterres has been one of the few world leaders to show any conviction in this period, Spain's Pedro Sánchez being another about Israel in the Spanish parliament, he responded: 'We do not trade with a genocidal state.' An inflection point has been passed: world leaders increasingly admit that Israel is committing genocide. If witnessing such atrocities makes you feel impotent, it is worth resisting such a feeling of disempowerment. While world leaders such as Trump are captured by a fusion of Christian Zionism and imbecility, others such as our own Prime Minister are not. Incredibly, last week, The National, which has been consistently good in its coverage of the assault on Gaza, reported that: 'Labour licensed exports of more military equipment to Israel in the final three months of 2024 than the Tories did for all of 2020–2023, new figures have revealed.' Labour's complicity in these atrocities may come to haunt them, electorally, morally and perhaps extent of their political isolation can be measured by the fact they are to the right even of Tory peers on this issue. Cutting through the feeling of reflexive impotence, the Conservative Baroness Warsi told Good Morning Britain: 'There are four clear things we could do today. We could stop all arms. We should recognise the state of Palestine now. We should impose sanctions. We should support the accountability process.' Of course, we should have done all of these things a very long time ago, as well as sent in UN Peacekeepers and international aid flights many, many months ago. The conversion of even establishment figures to oppose Israel is only of direct solidarity are in our own hands, as are acts of direct action – already being widened by Palestine Action – and mass we look for successful models of resistance, we can look to the anti-apartheid movement for inspiration. In the 1980s, the Conservative government under Thatcher maintained support for PW Botha's apartheid regime despite mass protest and anti-apartheid movement had built over decades, with action intensified after the Sharpeville massacre of March 21, 1960, when 69 unarmed protesters were shot dead by the South African police. The protest movement reached its zenith in 1988, organising around Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday. Glasgow had given Mandela the Freedom of the City in 1981, and a further eight cities and councils, including Aberdeen, Dundee, and Sheffield, followed this lead during the 1980s. There were four elements to 'Freedom at 70': The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert held at Wembley Stadium on June 11 A rally in Glasgow to launch the Nelson Mandela Freedom March on June 12 The five-week long Freedom March from Glasgow to London, which finished with a rally in Hyde Park on July 17, 1988 These events attracted an unprecedented level of interest in the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the struggle against example, the Wembley Stadium concert was attended by about 100,000 people and an estimated 600 million people in more than 60 countries watched the event. There is no unifying figurehead in Palestine similar to Mandela, and the dark irony is that although the media gave reports on conditions and state violence from South Africa, we know more than we ever did then about Palestine. In some senses, we know too much – but there are still no official media allowed on the ground in Gaza, and, as we know, what journalists there are have been targeted and killed in unprecedented numbers. Before the high point of the protests around Mandela's freedom march had come decades of resistance, isolation and solidarity. The Anti-Apartheid Movement forced South Africa to leave the Commonwealth in 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on all member states to impose a trade boycott against South 1963, the UN Security Council called for a partial arms ban against South Africa was expelled from the Olympics in 1970. South Africa became a pariah state, but only through the strategic efforts of a mass movement and internationally coordinated action. Today, Israel faces no such Eurovision entrant Yuval Raphael will appear at the competition in takes part in football competition and its leaders are met in Washington, London and Edinburgh. The point is that state actors such as Starmer may refuse to halt arms sales or military support, and issue D-Notices against journalists,but mass anti-imperialist movements – such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Free Palestine Movement – do have agency and power. Culturally, whether it's the poetry of the likes of Mohammed Moussa and the Gaza Poets Society, or the magnificent Falastin Film Festival which brings Palestinian cinema, culture, and art to Scotland, raising awareness of Zionist colonisation and striving to highlight Palestinian resistance, cultural pride, stories of love, and, in the words of poet Rafeef Ziadah, 'teachings of life.' As individuals, we have agency too — to speak out like the actions of Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's who spoke out: 'I told Congress they're killing poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and they're paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid in the US' – or the brave young student Logan Rozos speaking out at NYU's graduation ceremony – these all have collective impact. Israel's actions, like South Africa's before it, are radicalising a generation and exposing Western imperialism and militarism. Cohen is fond of quoting Archbishop Desmond Tutu: 'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.' Tutu is right, and as the European states continue their tacit support or active complicity in genocide, the movement is growing. As resistance grows, the British state's response is more and more repressive. All efforts must be made to intensify protest on all fronts and remember that ultimately apartheid was defeated and Nelson Mandela walked to freedom. Cultural resistance alone is not enough, but it is known to be a crucial part of resistance and the assertion of what is being denied - Palestinians' humanity and the rights and needs and desires that come with that.
CBC
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
All the Canadian books we're excited about in the first half of 2025
Looking for your next read? Check out all our lists of Canadian fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics and children's books to read in the first half of 2025! If you're interested in poetry, the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1. The 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is now open Canadian fiction Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2025 In The Book of Records, Lina grows up in "The Sea," a building that serves as a home for migrants from all over the world, while caring for her sick father. She forms friendships with her fascinating neighbours, including a Jewish scholar exiled for his radical views and a poet from the Tang Dynasty, whose stories captivate her. However, her seemingly perfect life takes a startling turn when her father reveals the true reason they came to live at "The Sea." When you can read it: May 6, 2025. Madeleine Thien is a short story writer and novelist. She is the author of the novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Canadian nonfiction Canadian nonfiction to watch for in spring 2024 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This marks Egyptian Canadian journalist and writer Omar El Akkad's nonfiction debut. In the fall of 2023, shortly after the bombardment of Gaza, he posted on social media a statement: "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." One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This expands on his powerful social media message and chronicles his thoughts on the fragile nature of truth, justice, privilege and morality. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is out now. El Akkad is a Canadian journalist and author who currently lives in Portland, Ore. His novel American War, which was defended on Canada Reads 2018 by actor Tahmoh Penikett., and his novel What Strange Paradise won the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was defended on Canada Reads 2022 by Tareq Hadhad. Canadian poetry Canadian poetry collections to watch for in spring 2025 In the poetry collection Unravel, Nigerian Canadian poet Tolu Oloruntoba reflects on themes of identity, belonging and agency by way of poems that fundamentally delve into what it means to be human in today's world. Unravel is out now. Oloruntoba is a writer from Nigeria who now lives in Alberta. He is the founder of the literary magazine Klorofyl. Oloruntoba won the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for his debut collection The Junta of Happenstance. In 1870s Sacramento, photographer Eadweard Muybridge takes on a challenge from railroad tycoon Leland Stanford — to prove whether a horse's hooves ever leave the ground while galloping. In the process, Muybridge unknowingly pioneers time-lapse photography, laying the foundation for motion pictures as we know them. Despite his groundbreaking discoveries, his life is marked by betrayal, intrigue and tragedy. Acclaimed cartoonist Guy Delisle captures the highs and lows of Muybridge's career, bringing his story to life with sharp detail and emotional depth. Guy Delisle is an critically-acclaimed cartoonist originally from Québec City. His books include Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City Pyongyang, and Shenzhen. Canadian YA Canadian YA books to watch for in spring 2025 Inspired by real-life historical drama, The Queen's Spade is a novel about Queen Victoria's young African goddaughter, Sarah Bonetta Forbes, also known as Sally. In 1862, Sally is set one taking down the colonial system of Britain ruled by her godmother. As a former princess of the Egbado Clan, Sally resents the politics of court that have sought to take away her power and so she grows closer to the Queen's inner circle in a plot to dismantle it. The Queen's Spade is out now. Sarah Raughley is a fantasy novelist from Southern Ontario. Her YA Effigies series includes Fate of Flames, Siege of Shadows and Legacy of Light. Raughley was the 2022 judge for CBC's student writing challenge, The First Page. Canadian middle-grade Canadian middle-grade books to watch for in spring 2025 In the middle-grade novel Something's Up with Arlo, 12-year-old Nero's best friend is a ghost called Arlo. Nero has relied on Arlo to look out for her — especially when the kids at school aren't being kind to her and her parents don't seem to notice. But when Nero is moved to a prestigious private school and is given the chance to 'start over' something weird and unsettling happens with Arlo, and Nero worries that her best friend is transforming into something scary. Something's Up with Arlo is for ages 8 to 12 and is out now. Matteo L. Cerilli is a transmasc writer and activist from Toronto. He is the author of the YA horror novel, Lockjaw. Something's Up with Arlo is his first novel for middle-grade readers. Canadian picture books Canadian picture books to watch for in spring 2025 In The Bear Out There, the reader is invited into a cabin in the woods, by the book's young narrator, to escape from a bear. In this charming and fun picture book, we soon realize that our narrator might not be entirely reliable. And everything changes when a bear does in fact turn up. The Bear Out There is for ages 4 to 8. The Bear Out There is available now. Jess Hannigan is writer and illustrator from Hamilton, Ont. Her debut picture book was Spider in the Well. She has also illustrated for publications such as the
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Omar El Akkad: Western hypocrisy on genocide in Gaza makes us complicit in death and destruction of Palestine
'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." When author Omar El Akkad posted those words on social media on Oct. 25, 2023, he never imagined they would be seen by more than 10 million people. Now, almost a year and a half later, those words and El Akkad's post are getting renewed attention as the basis for his new book is publishing this week. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This interrogates the West's responsibility in the plight of the Palestinian people, as destruction, displacement and death plague the enclave where it is believed almost 50,000 have been killed by Israeli bombardment. 'We are living in a time when it is clear the West no longer operates with the freedom and integrity it claims as its beating heart,' he writes in the book's foreword. His 2021 book, What Strange Paradise, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and its $100,000 award, but El Akkad had ended all connection with the prestigious prize because of the bank's ties to an Israeli arms manufacturer. The Giller Prize has parted ways with lead sponsor Scotiabank after more than a year of protests from the Canadian literary community. El Akkad spoke to Yahoo Canada from his adopted home, in Oregon, about why he felt compelled to write a book — "writing is the only thing I know how to do" — and his disillusionment with so-called Western ideals. 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. — Omar El Akkad (@omarelakkad) October 25, 2023Omar El Akkad: It's not something with which I have any experience outside of what happened. I'm not particularly good on social media. It's not something I ever did prolifically. I've actually stopped with all social media over the last few months. It was something I had posted with no expectation of it gaining any traction. It was a bizarre situation. For months afterwards, I was being cc'd in people's arguments while at the same time I'm watching an ongoing book launched last week in the United Kingdom and Ireland, so I got my first taste of public response. Of course, there's been positive and negative as you would expect but it's also been very different. For example, at an event I did in Dublin, there's a particular history there that causes the situation as being not far removed from them. The other thing is that it has been generational. Almost without exception when I would talk to people older than myself about the book I was writing, the response would be something like: 'You really shouldn't write this book.' It wasn't so much that they agreed or disagreed with the thesis statements or the content, it was their relationship with consequences. When I talked to people younger than me, they thought of it as almost too tame. The overarching thing I've seen in the last year and half is a very large [number of] people who have been able to look away from this without any consequences are now no longer able to do that. People who have been able to look away from this without any consequences are now no longer able to do off, writing is the only thing I know how to do. It's the only thing I'm halfway good at. I was in a situation where I was watching the worst thing I had ever seen in my lifetime. Not only was I being told by my elected representatives and my institutional representation that this was necessary and needed to continue, but I was also paying for it through my tax dollars. And I had to sit with the reality that in a very real way I was killing those kids. And so I retreated into — which has always been my first avenue of retreat — the page, writing. I really don't know if this book is going to do a damn thing but it feels like barely a step above the very least I could do. I had to sit with the reality that in a very real way I was killing those speaking, extremely minor. I've had a couple of events cancelled and I'll never have a relationship with the folks at the Giller Prize again. There's people who I would have previously thought of as friends I now know I'm never going to talk to again and who never want to talk to me again. If you had asked me two years ago, it would have been extremely consequential to me. But it seems senseless to get worked up about not being able to give a keynote at a teacher's conference this summer. It doesn't seem nearly as important as maybe it would have nearly two years ago.I think my capacity for surprise is part of my survival mechanism. I don't want to become one of those people who's just never surprised by new levels of depravity or cruelty. But it's very difficult to be genuinely surprised by anything this administration does because I think one of the hallmarks of this administration, compared to the previous one, is that there is very little distance between the performance and the reality. One of the most infuriating things of living under the Biden administration during this genocide was watching this elaborate performance of virtue and desire for peace, while watching the great distance between the pragmatic reality where these bombs are being sent over to accomplish the exact opposite of everything being performed. Trump doesn't have that problem. And so in a sense, there's something surprising about the specifics of each one of these deranged proposals, but the overarching reaction is not one of surprise, because again, he doesn't have to bother with the performance. He just goes straight to the cruelty. It's very difficult to be genuinely surprised by anything this administration does. I have a very hard time assigning much legitimacy to anything the Biden administration was talking about because I also saw what the Biden administration was doing. And again, we find ourselves back in this glaring distance between the thing said and the thing enacted. My sense is that anyone who claims to be horrified by this level of violence needs to understand that this only ends when the occupation comes to an end and when the theft of land comes to an end. When this process of forcing people to live in open-air prisons and ride on different buses and use different roads and live their lives in a constant nightmare of checkpoints and humiliation — when all of that comes to an end. I don't think Donald Trump cares in the slightest about Palestinians — I don't believe that for a second. The central difference here I think is how blatant that absence of care is, and the speed with which he is acting. But any political solution that doesn't bring an end to the occupation and the theft of land and the humiliation of a people now for three quarters of a century, is not a solution at all.I think a central prerequisite of the Western narrative is that Palestinians cannot be afforded the basic human dignity that the West would not think twice about affording itself. You see this not only in the substance of the narrative but also the chronology. We're back to this idea of when history begins. If history begins after a people are expelled from their land, homes as their territories are stolen, then absolutely they are the instigators. They are so perpetually angry that "why are they so angry?" becomes a valid question. But in any interpretation of history not subjected to those very deliberate kinds of blinders, it's completely nonsensical. Over the course of my lifetime, I've seen a parade of Western leaders — particularly U.S. presidents — try to maintain this ridiculous dichotomy of pretending to want a just peace while at all times dehumanizing one of the central groups involved. I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you come up with a just, peaceful outcome while perpetually considering one group of humans so subhuman that they are not allowed to be angry at their oppression. A central prerequisite of the Western narrative is that Palestinians cannot be afforded the basic human dignity that the West would not think twice about affording short answer is yes, absolutely. I think it's been blatant and pretty well undeniable. I talk about rewriting entire sections of this book: My capacity to take information in good faith — which was perhaps naive — took a real beating over the last year and a half. And that is impossible to separate from what the journalism industry has done since then. I think for me what this moment has clarified is another kind of glaring disparity between the kind of story a journalist would write in a vacuum if there was no external pressure, and the kind of story they would write when that external pressure is applied. I used to do this work full-time. I know a lot of these people. They're good people and they're good journalists. They know how to do the work. But when your career aspirations are threatened, when you know you're going to get angry letters or you know you're going to be denied access in the future because of something you've written, all of these external pressures end up weighing on the story. The only question I would hope journalists ask themselves not only in this context but any context is: What is the disparity between the kind of story I would write if those pressures didn't exist and the kind of story I'm writing now?The word genocide is merely a description: It comes with an obligation. When something is defined as a genocide there is an obligation on the international community to do something about it. So it's not surprising that there's immense reluctance to call not just [what's happening in Gaza] a genocide but essentially any genocide a genocide. What's interesting is that six months ago I would think of writing an op-ed and would say to the editor: 'Listen you're probably not going to run this because I'm going to call it a genocide and I'm going to say that Western governments are complicit. And six months ago the reaction was 'Yeah, you're right, let's not bother.' But one month ago, I did just that and the op-ed ran. So I think it's worth keeping in mind that these positions are always presented in the moment as being absolutely concrete. But like every other facet of discourse, they are not concrete. They are subject to individual and institutional thresholds that are themselves ever-changing. I don't know what happens the moment governments en masse decide this is a genocide. My suspicion is that when that decision comes it will be long after there's any opportunity to do something to stop thing I say in my book is that anyone who brings up that idea should at the very least consider the kind of conditions that necessitated Martin Luther King becoming the person he became, and also what was done to him before all those statues went up and before his birthday became a holiday [in the U.S.]. I have no doubt there are plenty of potential Martin Luther Kings. Though sadly I suspect many of them are already buried beneath the rubble. I have no doubt there are plenty of potential Martin Luther Kings. Though sadly I suspect many of them are already buried beneath the rubble. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Omar El Akkad (@oelakkad)
