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, a British-Israel citizen, said she was shocked that the board would recognize Mosab Abu Toha 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 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.