A former Hamas hostage slammed the Pulitzer Prize board for awarding a Gaza poet and New Yorker contributor who disputed her and others’ status as captives and whether the Bibas family was murdered by the terrorist group.
Emily Damari, 28, a British-Israel citizen, said she was shocked that the board would recognize Mosab Abu Toha, 32, with a Pulitzer for his essays on the Gaza war after he made light of the suffering she endured for 471 days under Hamas’ custody.
“You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity. And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered,” Damari wrote on X.
Mosab Abu Toha was awarded a 2025 Pulitzer Prize. Facebook / Mosab Abu Toha
Emily Damari wrote that Toha “denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered.”
“Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer. He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier,” she added. “And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial.”
Following his win earlier this week, it was revealed that Abu Toha had made several posts on social media questioning if Damari and other female Israel Defense Forces Soldiers should be considered hostages after they were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023.
“How on earth is this girl called a hostage,” he wrote, referring to a Damari back in January.
“This soldier who was close to the border with a city that she and her country have been occupying is called a ‘hostage’’” he added.
Romi Gonen, Emily Damari (in green) and Doron Steinbrecher are transferred to the IDF on January 19, 2025 after being held by Hamas. IDFHe made similar remarks about freed IDF soldier Agam Berger the following month, labeling her a “killer” rather than a hostage.
On Feb. 21, Abu Toha slammed reports that infants Kfir and Ariel Bibas were killed by Hamas with their “bare hands,” claiming it to be nothing more than propaganda.
The Gaza poet and New Yorker contributor questioned if Damari and other IDF soldiers should be considered hostages after they were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023. Facebook / Mosab Abu TohaHe also called into question reports that the hostages had undergone torture during their captivity, contradicting claims from the survivors that they were repeatedly beaten and starved by Hamas.
“These are not word games – they are outright denials of documented atrocities,” Damari said.
Damari was among the first people freed during the short-lived cease-fire at the start of the year, with the former hostage losing two fingers after she was shot in the hand on Oct. 7.
Toha won the Pulitzer for four pieces about his family’s struggle in Gaza that were published in the New Yorker in 2024.
Abu Toha, a graduate from the Islamic University of Gaza, won the Pulitzer in the “commentary” category on Monday for his essays published in The New Yorker.
The poet had written about his experiences in the war, noting that 31 family members were killed in a single airstrike in 2023.
He had been arrested by the IDF in November 2023 and subsequently released after his detainment sparked outcry from the West.
