The former hostage wrote to the board on social media: ‘This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it’
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A sticker with an image of Emily Damari who is being held in Gaza during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur FC and Liverpool FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on December 22, 2024 in London, England.
A former British-Israeli hostage who was held by Hamas in Gaza for 15 months spoke out against the Pulitzer Prize Board on Thursday for bestowing an award to a Palestinian poet who has disparaged victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and appeared to legitimize the abduction of hostages, among other comments that have stirred controversy.
Emily Damari, who in January was released from Hamas captivity after she was shot and taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel on Oct. 7, expressed outrage at the Pulitzer committee board over its decision to honor Mosab Abu Toha, a Gazan-born writer whose New Yorker essays on the war-torn enclave won the award for commentary on Monday.
In an anguished statement posted to social media, Damari, 28, voiced “shock and pain” that Abu Toha had won the prestigious award, citing his past remarks, uncovered earlier this week by the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting, in which he denigrated Israeli captives abducted by Hamas and questioned their status as hostages, while also casting doubt on Israeli findings that a baby and a toddler kidnapped by the terror group were “deliberately” murdered in Gaza with “bare hands.”
“If you haven’t seen any evidence, why did you publish this,” Abu Toha said in a social media post in February, criticizing a BBC report on the murder of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the young siblings who were abducted by Hamas. “Well, that’s what you are, filthy people.”
Elsewhere, Abu Toha, who is now a visiting scholar at Syracuse University, took aim directly at Damari, arguing that she could not be described as a hostage because, like most Israelis, she previously served as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces.
“How on earth is this girl called a hostage?” he said in a social media post in January, when Damari was among the first of three Israeli hostages to be freed amid a ceasefire deal that has since collapsed. “This soldier who was close to the border with a city that she and her country have been occupying is called a ‘hostage?’”
He likewise denounced another former Israeli hostage, Agam Berger, an IDF surveillance soldier freed in January. “These are the ones the world wants to share sympathy for, killers who join the army and have family in the army!” Abu Toha said in a social media post in February. “These are the ones whom CNN, BBC and the likes humanize in articles and TV programs and news bulletins.”
In her social media statement addressing the Pulitzer board on Thursday, Damari called Abu Toha “the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier” and said that the committee had “joined him in the shadows of denial” by choosing to award his writing with one of the country’s top journalism prizes.
“This is a man who, in January, questioned the very fact of my captivity,” she wrote. “He posted about me on Facebook and asked, ‘How on earth is this girl called a hostage?’ He has denied the murder of the Bibas family. He has questioned whether Agam Berger was truly a hostage. These are not word games — they are outright denials of documented atrocities.”
Damari, who lost two fingers after she was shot in the left hand during the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, also recounted the harrowing circumstances of her nearly 500 days in captivity, writing that she had “lived in terror” as she was “starved, abused, and treated like I was less than human.”
“You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity,” Damari said in her statement to the Pulitzer board. “And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered. Do you not see what this means?”
“This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it,” she concluded.
The Pulitzer board did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider on Thursday, nor did Abu Toha.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a swearing-in ceremony for Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House on May 06, 2025 in Washington, where he provided an update on the Houthi conflict in the Middle East.
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Capitol Hill is responding to the Trump administration’s Houthi ceasefire agreement, and report on a Washington Post correspondent’s condemnation of Israel’s military conduct following the paper’s citation by the Pulitzer Prize Board for its Gaza reporting. We preview today’s House Education & Workforce Committee hearing on campus antisemitism, and report on Sen. James Lankford’s voicing of frustration over the stalled Antisemitism Awareness Act. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Jessica Tisch and Jonathan and Mindy Gray.
What We’re Watching
- The House Education & the Workforce Committee is holding a hearing on campus antisemitism. The presidents of Haverford College, DePaul University and California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo) as well as Georgetown professor David Cole, the former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, are slated to testify.
- In the afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee is holding a hearing on FEMA.
- Later tonight, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter is hosting a Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration at the ambassador’s residence.
- Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is in Washington today for meetings with senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
- The Milken Global Conference wraps up in Los Angeles today with a three-part series on Israel in a post-Oct. 7 world. Former hostage Noa Argamani is slated to speak in conversation with Milken’s Richard Sandler, followed by author Noa Tishby. A third session, focused on the Israeli economy, will feature Pinegrove Venture Partners’ Tilli Kalisky-Bannett, Apollo Global Management’s Michael Kashani, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Chairman Eugene Kandel and Israel Securities Authority Chairman Seffy Zinger. Earlier in the day, Rabbi Sharon Brous will sit in conversation about her book, The Amen Effect.
- The papal conclave to select the successor to Pope Francis, who died last month, began today. More below on Vatican-Jewish relations.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S TAMARA ZIEVE AND MELISSA WEISS
President Donald Trump surprised lawmakers in Washington — as well as senior officials in Israel — with his announcement on Tuesday that the U.S. had reached an agreement with the Houthis to end strikes on the Iran-backed terror group in Yemen in exchange for the group’s cessation of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said that Trump’s claim related only to the group’s attacks in the Red Sea, and that the group’s “operations to support Gaza” — i.e. attacks targeting Israel — would continue, days after a Houthi ballistic missile struck the Ben Gurion Airport complex, injuring six.
Trump’s decision to strike a deal with the Houthis — even as the group vowed to continue its attacks on Israel — underscores the growing influence of isolationist thinking in the administration, raising questions about how U.S. leadership might redefine its commitments to allies under fire and the message this sends to Israel’s adversaries.
Pressed by reporters in the Oval Office yesterday about how Israel’s security might be affected by the deal, Trump replied that the issue was not a term of this agreement. “No, I don’t know about that frankly, but I know one thing: they [the Houthis] want nothing to do with us, and they’ve let that be known through all of their surrogates and very strongly,” Trump said.
“Trump’s announcement that the US will stop attacking the Houthis is a resounding message to the entire region: attack Israel, just leave us Americans alone,” Israeli political analyst Amit Segal wrote on X. “If I were Iranian, that’s how I’d interpret it.”
The move also calls into question the strength of the relationship between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak Ravid wrote in Walla, “The fact that the ceasefire was agreed upon behind Israel’s back during the very days that the Houthis were launching missiles at Ben Gurion Airport and the IDF was bombing Sana’a indicates extremely serious coordination and trust issues between the Netanyahu government and the Trump administration.” A senior official in Jerusalem was still unsure of the announcement’s impact on Israel as of Wednesday morning.
“No attacks on US ships is good news,” Dan Shapiro, who served in senior roles in both the Biden and Obama administrations, including as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2011-2017, said. “But the win is modest if attacks on others’ ships or on Israel continue. A terror org launching missiles around the region (incl to Israel’s airport) can’t continue.” He said that Israeli strikes may need to continue.
Another close ally of the U.S. involved in striking the Houthis was also not informed before Trump’s statement, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth received at least one angry phone call from a foreign counterpart on Tuesday, an Israeli defense source told JI.
The pushback on Capitol Hill was swift. “Clearly, that’s a problem,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said of the deal excluding terms ensuring the Houthis would stop firing at Israel. “The initial statement was they’ve got to stop firing at American ships. As much as I know is what’s actually printed. But clearly, they shouldn’t be able to shoot at us, our allies or any of the shipping in the area.” Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).
Jonathan Schanzer, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that decreased Houthi attacks on targets in the Red Sea might not necessarily lead to an uptick in attacks against Israel, noting that the ballistic missiles often used to target Israel are different weapons than those the Houthis have frequently used in the Red Sea. But, he continued, if U.S. strikes drop off, it could give the Houthis more ability and opportunity to maneuver weapons to launch sites.
Trump’s announcement also comes days after Mike Waltz’s ouster as national security advisor. Waltz, a former Green Beret who has advocated for a tougher U.S. stance against the Houthis and their Iranian sponsor, was a leading voice backing military action against the Yemeni group, which has fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel since December and significantly disrupted shipping routes in the Red Sea.
MEDIA MATTERS
Washington Post’s Pulitzer finalist for Gaza coverage slams Israel’s military conduct in one-sided acceptance speech
A Washington Post correspondent who has faced scrutiny over major factual errors in her reporting on Gaza gave a scathing critique of Israel’s military conduct on Monday after the paper’s war coverage was named as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for international reporting — even as it has drawn accusations of bias stemming from its handling of the war with Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Critical comments: Louisa Loveluck, a London-based correspondent focusing on the Middle East who was cited among several Post journalists in the Pulitzer announcement for their reporting about the ongoing conflict, delivered virtual comments to the paper’s newsroom during which she decried Israel’s military actions in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, according to audio of her remarks obtained by JI.
VATICAN VIEWS
Catholic cardinals shared Italian Jews’ concerns that pope ‘abandoned’ them, veteran journalist says
Italian Catholic cardinals showed solidarity with the local Jewish community, many of whose members felt Pope Francis was insensitive to the suffering of Israelis in the ongoing war, Maurizio Molinari, former editor-in-chief of major Italian daily la Repubblica, told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Monday. Speaking as the cardinals began to gather in Rome to choose a new pope to replace Pope Francis, who died last month, Molinari noted that Italian Jewish and Catholic leaders have “historical strong relations.” Community leaders held one of their annual interfaith meetings in February, during which, Molinari said, “one of the rabbis who was there in the framework of this dialogue told the other side, the priesthood, ‘We felt that you abandoned us.’”
A journalist’s insights: Molinari said that the rabbi in the Jewish-Catholic interfaith meeting represented “the feeling that many [Italian] Jews had that after Oct. 7, the pope didn’t dedicate so much attention to the suffering of the Israeli victims as he did with the suffering of the Palestinian victims. No one is raising objections to solidarity towards the Palestinian victims. The question comes when there is no balance. That was the point raised.” While it is a taboo for senior figures in the Catholic Church to publicly criticize the pope, Molinari said that as part of his own reporting he found that “some of the most important cardinals that will sit inside the conclave to choose the pope share this feeling. They are well aware of the feeling of the Italian Jews, and they share it.”
The next pope: In The Atlantic, Vatican reporter Francis X. Rocca writes that with a globally diverse and unfamiliar College of Cardinals, the media is playing an outsized role in shaping the papal conclave, where Pope Francis’s successor remains uncertain.
campus questions
Three more college presidents to testify before House Education and Workforce Committee
The House Education and Workforce Committee is holding the latest in its series of hearings on campus antisemitism with college presidents on Wednesday, this time focusing on colleges and universities outside of the most elite circles, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What to watch: The hearing will feature the presidents of Haverford College, California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo) and DePaul University. David Cole, the former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, is also set to testify. “This isn’t just an Ivy League issue,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), the new chair of the House Republican Conference, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday. “This is a widespread issue across academia. This shouldn’t be about partisanship, this is about public safety … My hope for tomorrow is that we get some actionable change from the universities.”
Protest pandemonium: After more than 30 anti-Israel demonstrators were arrested for occupying a University of Washington engineering building — causing more than $1 million worth of damage — the Trump administration announced on Tuesday night that the public university in Seattle would be the latest target in its widespread investigations of colleges for not doing enough to combat antisemitic activity, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
POLICY STANDOFF
Lankford airs frustration with Senate impasse over Antisemitism Awareness Act
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) expressed frustration on Tuesday about the debate in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last week that added poison-pill amendments to and stymied a vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act, potentially halting its progress in the Senate, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “In the past week, I watched our committee here break into a battle about, ‘Does this interrupt free speech?’ which just makes me scratch my head and say, ‘Of course it does not,” Lankford said of the AAA at an Orthodox Union event. “This just protects the speech that we all have, and protects the rights of every single individual and clearly puts a definition of what antisemitism looks like.” He also discussed the conversations he’d had with the administration regarding the freeze in reimbursements for Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding for synagogues and other institutions facing security threats, and his initial concerns — now allayed — that the administration might cancel grant programs wholesale.
ANSWERS FOR ACADEMIA
University leaders differ on future of higher education at Milken Institute conference
University leaders sparred over the direction of higher education in the era of the second Trump administration at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference on Tuesday, largely agreeing that universities have not done enough to maintain freedom of expression but differing over ways to address it, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
Addressing antisemitism: Speaking on a panel titled “Hurdles and Hopes in American Higher Education,” Yeshiva University President Ari Berman argued that universities and their formal bodies, including the American Association of Universities, need to more clearly denounce antisemitism in the name of academic freedom. “There’s certainly no place in the academy [for antisemitism], because the core of the academy is academic freedom. … And that needs to be said. Tenured professors need to know it. The presidents need to say it: that antisemitism is hate, and that hate attacks the foundation of the university, which is academic freedom,” Berman said.
Coalition admonition: The American Jewish Committee — together with major groups representing U.S. universities — on Tuesday released a statement asking the Trump administration to reconsider its approach to combatting campus antisemitism, which it said involves steps that “endanger” academic freedom, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
MILKEN MOMENT
McMahon raises ‘July Fourth Seder’ concept at Milken conference
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said on Tuesday that she was inspired by a program by PragerU to teach American children and families the history of the Fourth of July like the “Seder in the Jewish religion” where “once a year families share the stories of their heritage.” McMahon made the comment at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, prompted by a question from moderator Nina Rees about promoting civics education, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
What she said: “Civics has just been removed from so many schools’ curriculums,” McMahon said, noting that she had visited PragerU earlier in the day and learned about the conservative organization’s “4th of July Declaration Ceremony,” the brainchild of PragerU founder Dennis Prager, who first advocated for the idea in 2007. “To have a similar kind of a program that kind of brings it back to ‘let’s start it at home,’” McMahon told Rees. “And then let’s spread to all of the different schools that we have.”
Worthy Reads
Damascus Debate: In Foreign Affairs, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s David Makovsky and Simone Saidmehr look at Israel and Turkey’s diverging interests and goals in Syria, which borders both countries, following the ascension of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Shara as Syria’s president. “Turkey is clearly the power behind the new Syrian regime, largely because of its long-standing ties to HTS, and has helped Syria’s new leaders plan for reconstruction. Ankara also appears to be pursuing a defense pact with Syria that would expand Turkey’s influence, currently concentrated in the north, to the rest of the country. Israel is deeply alarmed by this trajectory. Two competing schools of thought have emerged on how to manage relations with Syria’s new regime. One set of Israeli officials holds that Israel should try working with Shara before deciding that he is an enemy. But another set, which includes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, believes that a moderate, centralized Syrian government is unlikely to emerge under Sunni Islamist leadership and that Israel should prepare itself for hostility by establishing informal spheres of influence.” [ForeignAffairs]
Charity Case: In The Wall Street Journal, Ira Stoll considers the legality of the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke Harvard’s 501(c)3 status. “On the education-or-propaganda question, first-year Harvard medical students were required to take a course on the ‘principles of advocacy and activism’ while focusing on ‘a most consequential public health threat — climate change.’ A high-profile Harvard task force recently reported ‘that certain faculty were injecting highly partisan discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of American Jewish groups in courses that had no direct connection with these subjects.’ The task force described a divinity school program on religion and public life as ‘one-sided, ideologically partisan, and biased.’ At the education school, some sections of a required course featured a ‘pyramid of white supremacy’ illustrating ‘the day-to-day racist norms’ at work in American culture. Examples include the Anti-Defamation League, opposition to boycotting Israel, Wall Street, the war on terror and community policing.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is expected to announce plans to rename the Persian Gulf when he travels to Saudi Arabia next week; the president will announce that the U.S. will refer to the area as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia…
Trump declined the suggestion that he might add a stop in Israel to his trip to the region next week — an idea first proposed by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter — but said a trip could happen in the future…
The State Department is shuttering the Office of Palestinian Affairs and merging the office into the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem; the office was opened by the Biden administration in June 2022 to work with Palestinians following the first Trump administration’s moving of the Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem…
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) and 19 Senate Republicans, as well as nine House members, re-introduced the No Official Palestine Entry (NOPE) Act, cutting U.S. funding to any U.N. Agency that provides additional rights or privileges to the Palestine Liberation Organization…
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch met on Tuesday with Chabad-Lubavitch officials at Chabad World Headquarters…
A new campaign is targeting Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish voters in Monsey, N.Y., with ads calling on voters to contact Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) to oppose proposals cutting Medicaid funding. But the group behind those ads has its own checkered history with Jewish community issues, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
A federal judge in Washington state ruled that a lawsuit filed by former Israeli hostages against the Palestine Chronicle can move forward; the nonprofit news site had employed a Palestinian man who held hostages in his Gaza home at the time he worked as a correspondent for the outlet…
Police in Philadelphia are investigating a weekend incident at a bar, owned by Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy, where servers held an antisemitic sign requested by patrons; Portnoy slammed one of the patrons, a Temple University student, for crowdfunding in the wake of the incident…
Howell Township, N.J., is facing a religious discrimination lawsuit after members of the town’s zoning committee rejected an application to build a Jewish cemetery…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Penny Pritzker, the senior fellow on Harvard Corporation who “stands at the center of the most consequential battle between a school and the U.S. government in more than half a century” as the Trump administration and Harvard administrators battle over federal funding and campus oversight…
Blackstone President Jonathan Gray and his wife, Mindy, are donating $125 million to Tel Aviv University’s health science and medical school, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…
Friedrich Merz, of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party, won the Bundstag’s second round of voting to become Germany’s next chancellor, hours after falling short by six votes in the first round…
An American F-18 fighter jet fell off the USS Harry S. Truman as it was landing, the second time in two weeks that a fighter jet on the aircraft carrier has been lost in the Red Sea…
A federal judge ordered the NSO Group to pay Meta $167 million in damages over the cybersecurity firm’s hacking of 1,400 WhatsApp accounts of journalists, human-rights activists and government officials through its Pegasus spyware…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which time Netanyahu thanked Moscow for its assistance in securing the release of Russian-Israeli hostage Sasha Trufanov…
An American-Jewish man was reportedly killed while visiting Turkey to photograph wildlife; the Yeshiva World reported that Yitzchak Alishayiv, a former gabbai of the Vorhand Shteibel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was fatally stabbed by his host in the country…
Dr. Philip Sunshine, a pioneer in the field of neonatalology, died at 94…
Holocaust survivor Eve Kugler, who escaped Nazi Germany as a 10-year-old when she and her sister were sent to live with foster families in the U.S., died at 94…
Pic of the Day
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov at an event on Tuesday night hosted by the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem welcoming Huckabee to Israel.
Birthdays
President of Harvard University, Alan Michael Garber turns 70…
Member of the New York State Assembly from 1993 to 2022, Sandra R. “Sandy” Galef turns 85… Senior member of the Mobile, Ala. law firm of Silver, Voit & Thompson, Irving Silver turns 85… Napa, Calif.-based media executive and podcast host, Jeffrey Schechtman… Theatrical producer at Press the Button Productions in Monterey, Calif., Jane J. Press… Former member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Rabbi Meshulam Nahari turns 74… Former deputy secretary of state, deputy national security advisor, currently the dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS, James Braidy “Jim” Steinberg turns 72… Director of films including “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “National Lampoon’s European Vacation,” “Look Who’s Talking” and “Clueless,” Amy Heckerling turns 71… Mayor of El Paso, Texas, from 2013 to 2017 and again from 2021 to 2025, Oscar Leeser turns 67… Professional poker player and hedge fund manager, Daniel Shak turns 66… CEO of Rationalwave Capital Partners, Mark Rosenblatt… Emmy Award-winning film, television and music video director, Adam Bernstein turns 65… Mexican actor best known for his work in telenovelas and the stage, Ari Telch turns 63… Founder of JewBelong, an organization to introduce people to the joy, meaning, relevance and connection that Judaism has to offer, Archie Gottesman… Chairman and CEO of Hertz from 2022 to 2024, Stephen Scherr turns 61… Former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Mark H. Levine turns 59… CEO of the American Jewish Committee, he was previously a member of Congress for 12 years, Ted Deutch turns 59… Principal at Cornerstone Government Affairs, Keith Stern… Chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, Matthew Hillel Solomson turns 51… Former member of the Knesset who served as interior minister and justice minister, she now chairs Kardan Real Estate Group, Ayelet Shaked turns 49… AIPAC leader and activist, Yana J. Lukeman… VP of sales at Harvey, Robert Warren Saliterman… Head of school at Manhattan Day School, Dr. Pesha C. Kletenik… Social entrepreneur, winemaker and CEO of Napa Valley’s OneHope, Jake Kloberdanz turns 42… Director of government affairs for the Port of Los Angeles, Arthur L. Mandel turns 40… CEO of Austin-based Harris Media, he has worked on four presidential campaigns, Vincent Robert Harris turns 37… Adventurer, dogsled racer, advice columnist and writer, she raced in and completed the 2019 dog sled Iditarod, Blair Braverman turns 37… Las Vegas-based fashion blogger, model, DJ and writer, known as Bebe Zeva, Rebeccah Zeva Hershkovitz turns 32… Film and television actress, Dylan Nicole Gelula turns 31… Actor and singer, Andrew Barth Feldman turns 23…