PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING PALESTINIAN POET SCHOOLS JOURNO

You wouldn't normally criticise a talented poet on which words to use, especially if he had just won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Yet, that's what MSNBC journalist Catherine Rampell did with Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha (@mosab_abutoha on IG).

Rampell claimed Toha's criticism of Western media was controversial because he called out Israelis being referred to as ‘hostages’ while Palestinians are called ‘prisoners.’

What ensued was a masterful response from the 32-year-old Palestinian poet. In explaining how the Israeli military has inflicted violence on him and his family, Toha exposed the media's attempt to dehumanise Palestinians and delegitimise their suffering to justify the Western-backed 77-year occupation of their land.

Israel's ongoing military onslaught in Gaza has so far k*lled 53,010 Palestinian people, according to Gaza authorities. Many are women and children. The Economist estimates as many as 109,000 deaths, based on research by British medical journal The Lancet. In July 2024, The Lancet put the figure over 186,000.

Toha won the Pulitzer for ‘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 Israel’s onslaught on his homeland. He depicted the actions of imperialists in Western Asia, helping the world appreciate the human cost of colonialism and apartheid. Toha’s work earned him an award, but as he pointed out, the oppressors would not celebrate his achievement.

Maybe someone needs to tell Rampell (@crampell on IG) that words shape our understanding of the world.

Video credit: @MSNBC