Why this Israeli hostage is calling out the Pulitzer Prize Board

Time of India

08-05-2025

Image credits: X/@EmilyDamari1
Someone's life and their experiences might be news for you, but they are factual and experienced truths for them. In these situations, while you may not align with a side or believe the spoken word, you can never erase the occurrence of the event with your disbelief.
However, according to
Emily Damari
, a victim of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, that is what Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Mosab Abu Toha
did. The 28-year-old British-Israeli citizen, who is a native of the Kibbutz Kfar Aza region in Israel, shared how the physical and mental atrocities faced by her and her friends and family were belittled and denied by Palestinian writer and poet Mosab Abu Toha who has been awarded by the
Pulitzer Prize
as for best commentary through his series of New Yorker essays on the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
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She took to X to share how she was shocked and pained to see that the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to the journalist who in January questioned her captivity by the Hamas terrorists, denied the murder of the Bibas family and even questioned whether
Agam Berger
was truly a hostage.
"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," wrote Damari on X.
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She added how by awarding Toha, Pulitzer had joined his "shadows of denial" writing, 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,' she completed.
Image credits: X/@Ceasefire_Track
Damari, along with 251 men, women and children, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on the morning of October 7, 2023.
She shared how the terrorists burst into her small studio apartment, shot her in the hand and leg and dragged her across the border into Gaza. She was held captive for almost 500 days, during which she was starved, abused and treated 'less than human.' She added how even after returning back she still carries the darkness of the experience with herself as her best friends still remain held in the Hamas 'horror tunnels.
'
While Toha may have been supporting his own side and Damari stands by the atrocities she faced, it still does not lessen the truth of her haunting experiences, which are shared by many across both borders.
However, what does remain in point is the fact that Toha did question and belittle the unfortunate experiences of many Israelis.
Toha made several social media posts asking if Damari and other female Israel Defence Forces Soldiers could be considered hostages. 'How on earth is this girl called a hostage,' he wrote. '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.
As Damari mentioned in her post, the 32-year-old journalist made similar comments about the freed IDF soldier Agam Berger, labelling her as a 'killer' rather than a hostage. Additionally, he slammed the reports of infants Kfir and Ariel Bibas being killed by Hamas by their 'bare hands', claiming it to be propaganda.
Damari condemned the journalist's actions, writing, 'These are not word games - they are outright denials of documented atrocities.'
What needs to be remembered here is that someone's pain can not be diminished just because it can not be felt by you. Ever since the Israel-Hamas war began, thousands of uninvolved victims have been injured and killed, and while one may not align with the ideals of either side, it is important to understand the pain and suffering of both, which, according to Damari, Toha did not.