Former Israeli-British hostage Emily Damari has publicly condemned the Pulitzer Prize board for awarding one of their prestigious honors to Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha, who had previously denied her status as a hostage and called Israeli hostages “killers,” Israel Hayom reported.
By Rachel Avraham
Former Israeli-British hostage Emily Damari has publicly condemned the Pulitzer Prize board for awarding one of their prestigious honors to Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha, who had previously denied her status as a hostage and called Israeli hostages “killers,” Israel Hayom reported. According to the report, Damari issued a direct statement addressing the Pulitzer board after they awarded Abu Toha a prize on Monday for his essays published in the New Yorker detailing the Gaza war.
On Wednesday, Honest Reporting revealed that Abu Toha disputed whether the Bibas family was murdered by their captors and argued that Israeli hostages should not be called hostages, the Jerusalem Post reported. According to the report, on January 24, 2025, Abu Toha posted a picture of the then-hostage Damari, writing, “How on earth is this girl called a hostage? This soldier who was close to the border with a city that she and her country have been occupying is called a ‘hostage?’”
“My name is Emily Damari,” Damari wrote in a powerful statement on X. “I was held hostage in Gaza for over 500 days. On the morning of October 7, I was at home in my small studio apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas terrorists burst in, shot me and dragged me across the border into Gaza. I was one of 251 men, women, children, and elderly people kidnapped that day from their beds, their homes, and a music festival.”
She continued: “For almost 500 days I lived in terror. I was starved, abused, and treated like I was less than human. I watched friends suffer. I watched hope dim. And even now, after returning home, I carry that darkness with me – because my best friends, Gali and Ziv Berman are still being held in the Hamas terror tunnels. So imagine my shock and pain when I saw that you awarded a Pulitzer Prize to Mosab Abu Toha.”
Damari proclaimed: “This is a man who, in January, questioned the very fact of my captivity. He posted about me on Facebook and asked, “How on earth is this girl called a hostage?” He has denied the murder of the Bibas family. He has questioned whether Agam Berger was truly a hostage. These are not word games – they are outright denials of documented atrocities.”
Damari then addressed the Pullitzer board: “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. Do you not see what this means? Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer. He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier. And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial. This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it.”
Israel Hayom reported that 29-year-old Damari suffered a gunshot wound to her hand during the October 7 massacre, resulting in the loss of two fingers. According to the report, Hamas terrorists then forcibly removed her from her home and held her in Gaza for 471 days. Israel Hayom added that Damari endured severe pain for 18 months from an untreated wound resulting from inadequate medical care while in captivity, with her mother stating that Hamas “sewed her up like a pin cushion.” And yet in the eyes of Abu Toha, she is not a hostage.
According to Honest Reporting, “Other posts by Abu Toha constitute a clear violation of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. When Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimeh was arrested by Swiss police in Zurich, Abu Toha blamed “the Zionists,” echoing antisemitic tropes about Jewish control over state bodies, government, and the media. Another pattern in Abu Toha’s posts is the demonization of Israeli soldiers and symbols. According to Abu Toha, Israeli “terror soldiers” celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah is “what true antisemitism looks like.””
Honest Reporting executive director Gil Hoffman recently proclaimed in a statement: “The Pulitzer Prize is the top award in journalism and should not be blemished by bestowing it to a man who repeatedly twisted facts. Abu Toha justifies abducting civilians from their homes, spreads fake news, and calls lighting a Menorah on Hanukkah antisemitism. That doesn’t sound prizeworthy to me.”
Photo from StandWithUs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgDTQODK6u8
