Palestinian Poet on Winning a Pulitzer: I Can't Celebrate While Gaza is Starving

Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha has won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, recognized for essays documenting life and loss in Gaza.

Published in The New Yorker, his writing weaves reporting with personal reflection to show the human cost of war. The Pulitzer committee praised the work for its “deep reporting” and “intimacy of memoir.”

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.

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He was awarded the $15,000 prize for his work, which drew wide praise for centering Palestinian voices often left out of mainstream coverage. But told Democracy Now that he cannot celebrate when "I know that my sisters, my brothers and my parents in Gaza are starving".

“I have just won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary,” Abu Toha wrote on social media. Let it bring hope. Let it be a tale.” His words echo those of his friend and fellow poet Refaat Alareer, killed in an Israeli airstrike in December 2023. Alareer’s final poem included the line: “If I must die, let it be a tale.”

Abu Toha was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2023 before crossing into Egypt and later moving to the U.S.

That experience, along with the siege and bombardment of Gaza, shaped much of his writing. His essays describe not only the destruction of homes and neighborhoods but also the uncertainty and fear of daily life under bombardment, from searching for food and clean water to the constant threat of airstrikes.

In recent months, right-wing groups in the U.S. have called for his deportation, part of broader efforts tied to Donald Trump’s campaign against noncitizens critical of Israel.

Trump has vowed to expand measures restricting pro-Palestinian activism, framing it as a national security issue. These calls come amid a suppression of speech perceived as sympathetic to Palestinians, as U.S. political discourse about Israel and Palestine becomes increasingly polarized.

Abu Toha has cancelled several public events, citing concerns for his safety. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and other advocacy groups have condemned the targeting of Abu Toha, calling it part of a broader crackdown on Palestinian voices and dissent in the U.S., where legislative measures in several states seek to penalize criticism of Israel under anti-boycott laws.

“The only celebration for me is when there is an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza [and] the West Bank, and when justice and peace are served in Palestine,” Abu Toha said after the announcement.

His Pulitzer not only recognizes his literary achievement but also highlights the risks faced by writers documenting life under occupation and siege, and the growing pressures on those who speak out far from home.

His award comes at a time when the space for Palestinian narratives in the U.S. public sphere is increasingly restricted, even as the violence and humanitarian crisis in Gaza continue to escalate.