Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha wins Pulitzer prize for commentary

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Written by Léonie Chao-Fong Léonie Chao-Fong

Published: 05 May 2025 05 May 2025

Renowned poet and author wins prize for series of New Yorker essays on suffering of Palestinians in Gaza

The renowned Palestinian poet and author, Mosab Abu Toha, is among this year’s Pulitzer prize winners.

Abu Toha was awarded for a series of essays in the New Yorker documenting the lives and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, where he has lived nearly all his life.

“I have just won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary,” he wrote on X. “Let it bring hope / Let it be a tale.”

His essays portrayed 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”, the Pulitzer board said on Monday.

Abu Toha, 32, was detained in 2023 by Israeli forces at a checkpoint as he tried to flee his home in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza with his wife, Maram, and their three young children.

In Israeli detention, soldiers “separated me from my family, beat me, and interrogated me”, he wrote. He was able to leave and escape to the US after friends abroad applied pressure for his release.

Read more on The Guardian

The Guardian view on Israel’s aid blockade of Gaza: hunger as a weapon of war

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Written by The Guardian Editorial The Guardian Editorial

Published: 04 May 2025 04 May 2025

Conditions are increasingly desperate. The resumption of humanitarian relief is essential to save civilian lives

As Israel and the US attack international courts, other nations – including the UK – must do all they can to defend and bolster them. They must also press harder for the immediate resumption of aid. What is shameful about this ICJ case is the need to bring it. What is shameful is that almost half the children in Gaza questioned in a study said that they wished to die. What is shameful is that so many civilians have been killed, and so many more pushed to the brink of starvation. What is shameful is that this has, indeed, been allowed to happen.

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Why I violated the IHRA definition of antisemitism

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Written by Joel Beinin Joel Beinin

Published: 28 April 2025 28 April 2025

This thinly veiled attack on freedom of speech aims to curb any meaningful discussion of the Israel-Palestine conflict

On 17 April, the National Day of Action for Higher Education, dozens of scholars of Jewish studies, Holocaust studies and Middle Eastern studies - myself included - took part in an organised effort to intentionally violate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism. 

Defying the IHRA’s definition was an integral part of this day of resistance to Maga authoritarianism, in solidarity with higher education, which saw hundreds of rallies, teach-ins and webinars across the United States. 

The IHRA definition of antisemitism, which is endorsed by Washington, is a thinly veiled attack on freedom of speech, academic freedom and free inquiry. It prevents scholars from describing and discussing the significance of well-documented historical and contemporary facts. 

The definition attempts to censor discussions of the settler-colonialism, systemic racism, apartheid and now genocide that have informed the history and current policies of the state of Israel. According to the examples cited by the IHRA, stating that Israel is a racist endeavour constitutes antisemitism, even if one doesn’t say anything about Jews as a people or Judaism as a religion. 

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Read more at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-i-violated-ihra-definition-antisemitism

Haaretz Exposé | Killing of Gaza Aid Workers: IDF Troops Fired Indiscriminately for Over Three Minutes, Some at Point-blank Range

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Written by Yaniv Kubovich | Haaretz Yaniv Kubovich | Haaretz

Published: 24 April 2025 24 April 2025

IDF materials show that soldiers reloaded their magazines multiple times while shooting at 12 aid workers who tried to identify themselves ■ Before the shooting, the force was alerted to increased ambulance traffic in the area ■ The aid vehicles were on a permitted route that didn't require coordination ■ The commander decided on his own to deviate from his assigned mission

The Israeli army unit that killed aid workers in Gaza's Rafah last month had received a report about increased ambulance traffic on the route shortly before the incident. The soldiers fired at the vehicles continuously for three and a half minutes – even from point-blank range – reloading their ammunition multiple times, despite attempts by the aid workers to identify themselves.

Read more on Haaretz (the article is paywalled).