Pulitzer Prize winner says 'I don't want to compare suffering' in poignant chat
Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet and essayist, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his writing on Palestinian suffering during the Israeli conflict. In an awkward interview with MSNBC this is side-lined
Pulitzer Prize winner Mosab Abu Toha refused to compare suffering as he was awkwardly questioned in an interview with MSNBC 's Weekend Primetime. Abu Toha appeared on the chat-show to talk with Ayman Mohyeldin, Antonia Hylton and Catherine Rampell about winning the highest accolade within journalism.
However, Rampell's line of questioning has caused reaction across social media, not least from Abu Toha himself. Rampell congratulated Mosab on his award, but in her words, it had come "not without controversy."
The anchor continues to ask about the case of British-Israeli hostage, Emily Damari. As reported by the BBC , Damari was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7. Damari lost two fingers, and was then released in January 2025.
The MSNBC anchor queries Abu Toha about a possible comment about whether Damari was a hostage at all. In response, he refutes this. He said: "First of all, I did not question her status as a hostage." Instead, he explains that the language used to describe those incarcerated differs depending on whether they are Israeli or Palestinian.
He continues: "I have people in my family who were kidnapped from checkpoints, from schools, from shelters, and they are named prisoners. So my question is, why should Emily and other hostages be named hostages while my loved ones should be named prisoners?"
He says: "I have never denied anyone's suffering. Everyone is suffering, Israelis and Palestinians. But why are our sufferings not acknowledged? Why are we called terrorists?"
Abu Toha has written extensively about Palestinian suffering. On his personal pain, he said: "I was kept hostage for 53 hours. I was blind-folded, and hand-cuffed, and was beaten in my face. I asked Israeli soldiers to see a doctor, and they denied me any medical treatment. Am I less human than anyone else? So that was the question."
He tells the three MSNBC anchors that 31 members of his family were killed in one airstrike. In response to Damari being held hostage for 15 months, he says "I don't want to compare suffering."
But he continues on to highlight the continued plight of Palestinians, by saying: "A cousin of mine was killed in October 2023, and her body remained under the rubble for 558 days. And still, her husband and her child are still under the rubble to this day."
When he is asked about his Pulitzer win, he explains that being awarded the prize is bigger than his own story. He says: "My win is not my win as Mosab, it is for the stories I shared with the whole world. And I promise you there are so many stories that I have that I haven't written."
Mosab Abu Toha won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, for his series of essays in the New Yorker on the war in Palestine. The Pulitzer Prize committee in awarding Abu Toha the prestigious prize said that his work as contributor to the New Yorker consisted of "essays on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience."
He won the prize for four articles, which include, ' My Family's Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza ' and The Pain of Travelling While Palestinian,' both of which highlight the suffering caused to the Palestinian people during the Israeli conflict.
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