‘Outright Denials of Documented Atrocities’: Former Hostage of Hamas Decries Pulitzer for Gazan Writer

Latest Developments

• Former Hostage Condemns Award: Emily Damari, a British-Israeli woman who was shot and kidnapped from her home by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and held hostage for nearly 500 days, criticized the award of a Pulitzer Prize to a Gazan writer whom, she said, justified her abduction. Mosab Abu Toha, who now lives in the United States, received the prize on May 5 in the “Commentary” category for a series of essays published in The New Yorker as war raged between Israel and Hamas. “These are not word games,” Damari said, but “outright denials of documented atrocities. 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.”
• Abu Toha’s Online Presence: In social media posts, Abu Toha attempted to portray Damari as an active IDF soldier, asking, “How on earth is this girl called a hostage?” At the time of her abduction, Damari was a civilian. He also accused Israel of bombing the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza in 2023, even though IDF investigations corroborated by the United States concluded the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Additionally, Abu Toha drew comparisons between Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and the Holocaust in a social media comment, referred to IDF soldiers as “Terror Soldiers,” and claimed that their celebrations of Hannukah while deployed in Gaza amounted to “antisemitism.”
• Journalism as a Cover for Terror: In March 2024, the Reynolds Journalism Institute awarded its prestigious Photo of the Year prize to Ali Mahmud, an Associated Press photographer from Gaza who accompanied Hamas terrorists into Israel on October 7, 2023. In another case, following the June 2024 rescue of four hostages by the IDF from Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, Israel accused Abdallah Aljamal, a freelancer contributing to the Qatari-owned network Al Jazeera and the U.S.-based Palestine Chronicle who was killed during the operation, of holding the captives in his home. A U.S. federal judge stated on May 6 that there was reason to believe that the Palestine Chronicle, currently facing a lawsuit by several former hostages for allegedly providing material support for terrorism, knew of Aljamal’s Hamas ties and his role in holding hostages.

FDD Expert Response

“When I was a young journalist, recipients of a Pulitzer Prize were regarded as having achieved the highest aspirations of the vocation. The award has become meaningless — or, frankly, worse — now that the Pulitzer board has ‘honored’ a writer who supports Hamas, a terrorist organization that is holding and torturing kidnapped civilian hostages and is openly committed to genocide.” — Clifford D. May, Founder and President

“Emily Damari is absolutely correct when she calls Abu Toha ‘the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier.’ The decision to give him an award leaves an indelible stain on the Pulitzer board. But perhaps more worrying is the silence from other recipients of this prestigious award, who should also be protesting this violation of basic journalistic standards of truth and decency.” — Ben Cohen, Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Director

“The Pulitzer board has further undermined the credibility of mainstream journalism, eroding public trust in the profession. The people supposed to give us unfiltered news are instead rewarding terrorism apologia and atrocity denial.” — David May, Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

FDD Background and Analysis

“Captured Documents Show Al Jazeera Ties to Hamas, Islamic Jihad,” by Ahmad Sharawi

“IDF Exposes Six Al-Jazeera Journalists as Hamas, Islamic Jihad Terrorists,” FDD Flash Brief

“Al-Jazeera ‘Journalist’ Was Hamas Nukhba Terrorist,” FDD Flash Brief

“The Growing List of Al Jazeera Terrorists,” by Jonathan Schanzer