In his social media posts, Abu Toha "specifically disparaged female Israeli hostages, questioned their hostage status and implicitly justified their abduction."

By MATHILDA HELLER

MAY 7, 2025 16:36

Updated: MAY 7, 2025 18:17

Mosab Abu Toha denying that Emily Damari should be classified as a hostage. (photo credit: Screenshot/Honest Reporting)

Mosab Abu Toha denying that Emily Damari should be classified as a hostage.

(photo credit: Screenshot/Honest Reporting)

One of the winners of this year's Pulitzer Prize - Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha - disputed whether the Bibas family was murdered by their captors and argued that Israeli hostages should not be called hostages.

This was first revealed by the watchdog HonestReporting, which also called for Abu Toha's award to be rescinded.

Abu Toha was awarded the prestigious prize on Monday for a series of essays in the New Yorker about the suffering in Gaza, where he was born and raised.

HonestReporting researched Abu Toha's social media history, which it claims is "virulently" antisemitic and anti-Israel. The watchdog then shared these posts with Fox News Digital, which reached out to Abu Toha, The New Yorker, and the Pulitzer Prize organization for comment.

In his social media posts, Abu Toha "specifically disparaged female Israeli hostages, questioned their hostage status and implicitly justified their abduction," HonestReporting said.

Agam Berger gets released from Hamas captivity to the ICRC, January 30, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/DAWOUD ABU ALKAS)

Agam Berger gets released from Hamas captivity to the ICRC, January 30, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/DAWOUD ABU ALKAS)

On January 24, 2025, Abu Toha posted a picture of then-hostage Emily Damari, saying, "How on earth is this girl 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?"

Emily Damari was shot in the hand on October 7 and lost two fingers. She was held hostage in Gaza for 471 days before being released in the 2025 hostage deal.

On February 3, 2025, he made a similar post about Agam Berger, calling her an "Israeli 'hostage'" in inverted commas.

"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 who CNN, BBC, and the likes humanize in articles, TV programs, and news bulletins."

Furthermore, after then-IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told the BBC that Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas were shown by forensic evidence to have been murdered by their captors, Abu Toha said, "shame on BBC, propaganda machine."

He has also used antisemitic dog whistles in other posts, HonestReporting claimed.

When Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimeh was arrested by Swiss police in Zurich, Abu Toha said it was the result of “the Zionists."

HonestReporting executive director Gil Hoffman released a call for the prize to be rescinded, saying, "The Pulitzer Prize is the top award in journalism and should not be blemished by bestowing it to a man who repeatedly twisted facts."

Meet Pulitzer Prize winner Mosab Abu Toha. He justifies the kidnapping of Israelis on Oct. 7. We aren't going to congratulate him for his prize. Instead, we're going to ask @PulitzerPrizes whether they bothered to check his social media.Because we did, and it's not pretty. pic.twitter.com/qQAMQGi0IK

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 7, 2025

“Abu Toha justifies abducting civilians from their homes, spreads fake news, and calls lighting a Menorah on Hanukkah antisemitism. That doesn’t sound prizeworthy to me."

The Israeli Consul General in New York, Ofir Akunis, told Fox News Digital that “these posts are an absolute disgrace, and this man should be condemned for his comments, not given a Pulitzer Prize. Reading these posts should make any decent person absolutely sick to their stomach.”

Last year, Reuters won in the breaking news photography category for its of-the-moment images of the beginning of the October 7 attacks. However, many, including HonestReporting, accused the photography staff of having advance knowledge of the attacks, a charge the company has denied.

Who is Abu Toha?

According to a post on April 15, Abu Toha was born in Gaza City in 1992 and has a BA in English from the Islamic University of Gaza.

He claims he has "never been part of any political or military factions in Palestine or abroad" and does not support any.

He also says he lost 31 family members on October 13, 2023, in a single airstrike.

On Tuesday, Abu Toha said his Facebook account had been suspended for the second time in a week.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721534&forum_id=2)#48911002)