Former Israeli hostage slams Pulitzer board for awarding prize to 'modern-day Holocaust denier'
Israeli hostage Emily Damari slammed the Pulitzer Prize board's decision to grant their prestigious award to a New Yorker writer who viciously attacked her and another female Israeli captive on social media, saying the organization failed on a "question of humanity."
"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 posted on X.
Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha was granted the Pulitzer Prize for his "essays on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza," the board announced Monday. The award came with a $15,000 prize.
Toha has frequently disparaged Israeli hostages in numerous posts on social media, including Damari.
New Pulitzer Prize Winner Disparaged Israelis Kidnapped By Hamas On Oct 7, Questioned Their 'Hostage' Status
"How on earth is this girl called a hostage? (And this is the case of most 'hostages'). This is Emily Damari, a 28 UK-Israeli soldier that Hamas detailed on 10/7… So this girl is 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?'" Toha posted about Damari on January 24, 2025.
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Damari, 29, who lost two fingers in her left hand when she was dragged out of her home by Hamas terrorists during their Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, detailed her excruciating ordeal in her response addressed to members of the Pulitzer Prizes board.
"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 wrote.
"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."
Damari, who was freed from captivity on Jan. 19, wrote that the Pulitzer board's decision to grant the award to Toha caused her "shock and pain." She accused the Palestinian poet of "outright denials of documented atrocities" for his inflammatory posts which denied the murder of the Bibas family and that she and fellow Israeli captive Agam Berger were true hostages.
"The Israeli 'hostage' Agam Berger, who was released days ago participates in her sister's graduation from an Israeli Air Force officers' course. These are the ones the world wants to share sympathy for, killers who join the army and have family in the army! These are the ones whom CNN, BBC and the likes humanize in articles and TV programs and news bulletins," Toha posted on Feb. 3, 2025.
President Trump Gave Me Back My Life After 471 Days Of Hamas Captivity — Please Save The Remaining Hostages
Berger, 28, is an Israeli violinist and former Gaza border scout at base Nahal Oz who was held captive in Gaza for 482 days. She revealed how she found ways to observe the Jewish Sabbath and Passover even as her captors tried to force her to convert her to Islam and how she and a fellow scout, Liri Albag, were kept in a "small room with no natural light." She was released from captivity on Jan. 30.
Damari and Berger declined to comment.
Toha has also denied evidence that showed the two Bibas children, 9-month-old Kfir and Ariel, 4, were killed by their captors "bare hands." He also spread the disproven claim that Israel was behind the bombing of the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza in Oct. 2023 and appeared to deny that Israeli hostages had been tortured. Numerous Israeli hostages have testified that they were victims of or witnessed torture, including sexual assault.
"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," Damari told the Pulitzer board.
"This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it," she concluded.
A Pulitzer Prize representative did not directly address Toha's award when reached for comment.
"The Pulitzer Prizes for reporting, commentary, literature, and the arts are based on a review of works that have been formally submitted for consideration," a Pulitzer Prize representative told Fox News Digital.
The New Yorker and Toha did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment in time for publication.Original article source: Former Israeli hostage slams Pulitzer board for awarding prize to 'modern-day Holocaust denier'
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