Pulitzer Prize Under Fire After Awarding Pro-Hamas Writer Who Denigrated Israeli Hostages

By: Fern Sidman

In a decision that has sparked outrage and disbelief across the Jewish world and among victims of Hamas terrorism, the Pulitzer Prize Board on Monday awarded Mosab Abu Toha its 2024 prize for commentary. The award, ostensibly meant to honor journalistic excellence and integrity, has instead become a lightning rod for controversy, given Abu Toha’s long record of denying Israeli suffering, spreading anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and minimizing the atrocities committed during Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

The decision has drawn sharp condemnation from multiple corners, none more powerful than that of Emily Damari, a survivor of Hamas captivity who was shot during the October 7 attacks and held hostage for 471 days in Gaza. In an emotional public statement, Damari denounced the board’s choice, declaring: “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.”

PBS drooling over the blood libel spreading anti-Semitic poet

According to the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), which swiftly issued a forceful response to the announcement, the Pulitzer Board’s decision effectively “sends the unfortunate message that Jewish anguish is unimportant, and that minimizing and mocking it is acceptable, even laudable.” CAM has launched a formal campaign calling on the Board to rescind the award, branding it an “insult to the Jewish people” and a grotesque betrayal of the values the Pulitzers claim to represent.

As CAM pointed out in its statement, Abu Toha has repeatedly shown blatant disregard for factual reporting, let alone compassion for Israeli victims. Among his most inflammatory statements was his reaction to BBC coverage of the deaths of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the two red-headed Israeli children—ages 4 and 10 months—murdered after being taken hostage by Hamas. Abu Toha slammed the BBC as a “propaganda machine” and accused the network of manufacturing sympathy for murdered Jewish toddlers.

Even more egregiously, Abu Toha continues to promote the widely debunked claim that Israel bombed the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza in October 2023—an explosion that international investigations confirmed was caused by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket. Despite overwhelming evidence, Abu Toha has refused to correct the record, reinforcing a narrative that has incited hatred and violence against Jews worldwide.

In addition to denying the atrocities of October 7—when Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, raped and mutilated civilians, and abducted 251 hostages—Abu Toha has engaged in inflammatory rhetoric accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza. He has made no effort to distinguish between military action and terrorism, nor has he acknowledged the suffering of Israeli families or hostages whose trauma continues long after the initial attacks.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement argues that rewarding such commentary not only legitimizes falsehoods but emboldens the normalization of antisemitism in elite institutions. “That is why CAM is leading a campaign to ‘Pull the Pulitzer’ from Abu Toha,” the organization’s statement declared. “We cannot allow this insult to the Jewish people to go unanswered.”

The campaign has already garnered momentum on social media under the hashtag #PullThePulitzer, with thousands of users echoing Damari’s outrage and demanding that the Pulitzer Prize Board rescind the award.

This latest controversy comes amid a broader reckoning within media and academic institutions, where expressions of sympathy for Israel and condemnation of Hamas atrocities are increasingly marginalized, while anti-Israel rhetoric is afforded prestigious platforms. The decision to honor Abu Toha has intensified concerns about the ideological drift of legacy awards like the Pulitzer, which once symbolized unimpeachable journalistic integrity but now appear vulnerable to political bias and moral blindness.

In the words of CAM and the many Jewish leaders who have voiced their disappointment, this is not merely a lapse in judgment—it is a betrayal. It is a choice that elevates a man who has vilified the murdered, ignored the maimed, and insulted the bereaved.

As pressure mounts, the Pulitzer Board now faces a critical test: Will it correct course and affirm its stated values, or will it double down on a decision that many see as a dangerous endorsement of antisemitic denialism and disinformation?

For Emily Damari, the message is clear. For countless others still grieving, it is a line that should never have been crossed.