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Freed Israeli Hostage Calls on Pulitzer Board to Revoke Prize to Palestinian Writer Who Justified Hamas Abductions

Former hostage Emily Damari is reunited with her mother, on Jan. 19, 2025. Credit: Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit.

The Pulitzer Prize board is facing increasing pressure to rescind its decision to give the high-profile journalism award earlier this week to a Palestinian writer who justified the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, shared antisemitic comments, and dismissed the accounts of hostages held in Gaza who said they were abused in captivity.

Emily Damari, a former hostage held in Gaza for over 500 days, sent a letter to the Pulitzer Prize board on Thursday urging it to rescind its latest award, expressing “shock and pain” upon learning that the prestigious honor had been given to a man who, earlier this year, questioned her captivity and denied the murder of the Bibas family.

“These are not word games – they are outright denials of documented atrocities,” Damari wrote in a post on X. “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, a 28-year-old Israeli-British national, was shot and abducted from her home in Kfar Aza during Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel, during which Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people. She was held in captivity for months before being released earlier this year as part of a ceasefire deal. After being shot in the hand and leg, she required surgery and ultimately lost two fingers.

On Monday, Mosab Abu Toha, a Gaza-born writer currently living in the United States, won journalism’s most prestigious honor in the “commentary” category for a series of essays in The New Yorker about life in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.

In a statement announcing this year’s awards, the Pulitzer committee praised Abu Toha, 32, for his “essays on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience of more than a year and a half of war with Israel.”

Damari, who was one of 251 hostages kidnapped in southern Israel by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists during the Oct. 7 onslaught, described the writer in different terms.

“Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer,” Damari wrote in her letter. “He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier. And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial.”

She continued, “This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed.”

HonestReporting, a media watchdog group, also called for the Pulitzer Prize to be rescinded after it highlighted several posts in which Abu Toha denigrated Damari and other hostages, denied the murder of the Bibas children, and spread fake news and antisemitic remarks across social media.

“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 [sic] on 10/7,” Abu Toha wrote in a post on Facebook earlier this year.

“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’?” he continued.

In other social media posts, Abu Toha referred to Israeli soldiers as “killers who join the army and have family in the army,” while criticizing international media for “humaniz[ing]” them.

According to HonestReporting, the Palestinian writer’s online rhetoric fits the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, spreading misinformation and perpetuating harmful antisemitic stereotypes. The organization highlighted posts in which Abu Toha referred to Israeli troops as “terror soldiers” and likened Israel’s military actions in Gaza to the Holocaust.

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein condemned the prize awarded to Abu Toha as “shameful” and called for it to be rescinded.

“Apparently, attacking young Israeli women who were brutally kidnapped by Hamas, can get you the @PulitzerPrizes— at least when it comes to @MosabAbuToha,” he wrote in a post on X.

The post Freed Israeli Hostage Calls on Pulitzer Board to Revoke Prize to Palestinian Writer Who Justified Hamas Abductions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hezbollah Says Lebanon Move on Army Plan Is ‘Opportunity,’ Urges Israel to Commit to Ceasefire

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and members of the cabinet stand as they attend a cabinet session to discuss the army’s plan to disarm Hezbollah, at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, Lebanon, September 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati told Reuters on Saturday that the group considered Friday’s cabinet session on an army plan to establish a state monopoly on arms “an opportunity to return to wisdom and reason, preventing the country from slipping into the unknown.”

Lebanon’s cabinet on Friday welcomed a plan by the army that would disarm Hezbollah and said the military would begin executing it, without setting a timeframe for implementation and cautioning that the army had limited capabilities.

But it said continued Israeli military operations in Lebanon would hamper the army’s progress. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lebanese information minister Paul Morcos stopped short of saying the cabinet had formally approved the plan.

Qmati told Reuters that Hezbollah had reached its assessment based on the government’s declaration on Friday that further implementation of a US roadmap on the matter was dependent on Israel’s commitment. He said that without Israel halting strikes and withdrawing its troops from southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s implementation of the plan should remain “suspended until further notice.”

Lebanon’s cabinet last month tasked the army with coming up with a plan that would establish a state monopoly on arms and approved a US roadmap aimed at disarming Hezbollah in exchange for a halt to Israeli military operations in Lebanon.

Qmati said that Hezbollah “unequivocally rejected” those two decisions and expected the Lebanese government to draw up a national defense strategy.

Israel last week signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the army took action to disarm Hezbollah. Meanwhile, it has continued its strikes, killing four people on Wednesday.

A national divide over Hezbollah’s disarmament has taken center stage in Lebanon since last year’s devastating war with Israel, which upended a power balance long dominated by the Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim group.

Lebanon is under pressure from the US, Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals to disarm the group. But Hezbollah has pushed back, saying it would be a serious misstep to even discuss disarmament while Israel continues its air strikes on Lebanon and occupies swathes of territory in the south.

Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem last month raised the specter of civil war, warning the government against trying to confront the group and saying street protests were possible.

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UK Police Arrest Dozens at Latest Protest for Banned Palestine Action

Demonstrators attend the “Lift The Ban” rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

British police arrested dozens more people on Saturday under anti-terrorism laws for demonstrating in support of Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian group banned by the government as a terrorist organization.

Britain banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation in July after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged military planes. The group accuses Britain’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Police have arrested hundreds of Palestine Action supporters in recent weeks under anti-terrorism legislation, including over 500 in just one day last month, many of them over the age of 60.

On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered near parliament in central London to protest against the ban on Saturday, with many holding up signs that said: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers had begun arresting those expressing support for Palestine Action. Police did not say how many arrests were made but a Reuters witness said dozens of people were detained.

Palestine Action’s ban, or proscription, puts the group alongside al-Qaeda and ISIS and makes it a crime to support or belong to the organization, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

“I can be unequivocal, if you show support for Palestine Action – an offense under the Terrorism Act – you will be arrested,” Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said on Friday. “We have the officer numbers, custody capacity and all other resources to process as many people as is required.”

Human rights groups have criticized Britain’s decision to ban the group as disproportionate and say it limits the freedom of expression of peaceful protesters.

The government has accused Palestine Action of causing millions of pounds worth of criminal damage and says the ban does not prevent other pro-Palestinian protests.

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Macron’s Meeting with American Jewry ‘Won’t Happen’ Amid Palestinian Recognition Drive, Surge in Antisemitism

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference in Paris, France, June 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

i24 NewsFrench President Emmanuel Macron attempted to set up a meeting with American Jewish leaders later this month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

i24NEWS has learned that the meeting won’t happen, firstly because Macron was only available for the meeting ahead of the UN General Assembly during Rosh Hashanah, and yet, a person invited to meet with Macron and who has knowledge of the discussions told i24NEWS the sit-down simply wasn’t going to happen, anyway.

“I think the organizations, for the most part, would not have participated,” the person said, adding that AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee would have likely received invitations, among other entities.

“The guy has a 15% popularity rating in France. It’s not our job to help him out,” the person said.

Asked by i24NEWS whether Macron’s push for greater Palestinian state recognition or his lack of action in tackling antisemitism at home led to the stance of organized American Jewry, the person said it’s more of “the climate” which allows one to say ‘Look, the American Jews met with me,’ regardless of the content.”

The person said they are sure, if a meeting would have happened, that everybody in the room would have taken a hard line with Macron, including his “statements on Israel, the failure to respond to antisemitism” and France’s announcement this summer that it will recognize a Palestinian state later this month, and is leading an effort to get more countries to do the same.

But, the person told i24NEWS they are convinced that, in the end, while no final decision actually had to be taken, there was enough pressure that a consensus would have been reached to decline the meeting.

Of the timing of Rosh Hashanah allowing for leadership to not be forced to officially say no to Macron, the person said “G-d saves us every time.”

Another source familiar with the matter noted that it cannot be ruled out that Macron may eventually succeed in arranging a meeting with certain representatives, as the organizations are not a single unified body. However, he is unlikely to be welcomed by the overwhelming majority of groups representing American Jewry.

i24NEWS has also learned that French President Emmanuel Macron explored the possibility of visiting Israel ahead of the convention, but was advised by the Prime Minister’s Office that the timing was inappropriate. The message came as Macron continues to push for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move Israel strongly opposes. Sources further told i24NEWS that Israel is weighing additional retaliatory measures against Macron, including the potential closure of the French consulate in Jerusalem, which primarily serves Palestinians in the West Bank.

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