Pushing Back Against Forgetting: Gazan Poet Ahmed Abu Artema is 2026 AMEU Mahoney Award winner
“..fighting back peacefully with our bodies and our love for life, appealing to the justice that remains in the world.”
(– Ahmed Abu Artema in The Nation, Nov 2023)
### MEDIA ALERT ### July 28, 2026 (New York) At a meeting of its Board of Directors, Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU) named the 2026 recipient of its annual AMEU / John and Sharon Mahoney Award for Service: poet and non-violence resistance activist Ahmed Abu Artema. AMEU President Don Wagner made the announcement, connecting Abu Artema to AMEU’s work: “Somehow, despite all that’s been thrown at him, and all that’s been torn from him, Ahmed manages to lift some of the terrible weight that hangs over Palestine. His story informs Americans like few others.”
Born and raised in Gaza, Abu Artema inspired the 2018-2019 non-violent protests that came to be known as the Great March of Return. More than a half-decade before October 7th, 30,000 Palestinians responded to Abu Artema’s call to peacefully disrupt and dismantle the Occupation. On Yom il Ard (Land Day) in 2018, at what should have been a safe distance from the militarized perimeter, Gaza’s women and men gathered to celebrate a birthright claim to their ancestral lands. Before the day was over the festive gathering had become a grotesque killing field, with Israeli snipers firing through the fence line. Over the course of the rolling Friday protests that followed, tens of thousands of Palestinians were maimed and hundreds were murdered— journalists, grandmothers, paramedics. Though UN fact-finding reports confessed that “Israeli snipers shot at children intentionally”, the Western press continued to report stories about stone throwers and Hamas.
Then, years later, and just two weeks after Oct 7th, Ahmed’s family home in Rafah was targeted by Israeli airstrikes. The house was destroyed and Ahmed was badly injured. Five members of Ahmed’s immediate family were killed, including his young son Abdallah. This violence must stop.
Ahmed and his wife and surviving children live, for now, in three different countries. Through the Mahoney Award, which includes a $5000 honorarium, AMEU applauds this man’s vision and courage and commitment.
Ahmed Abu Artema is the fifth person to receive the Mahoney award. Past winners include organizer Mahmoud Khalil, filmmaker Julia Bacha, graphic artist/illustrator Shirien Creates, and scholar Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Together, they are a chorus that amplifies John Mahoney’s commitment to a just peace. The selection committee rotates each year; in 2026 it was chaired by AMEU President Don Wagner, and included board and National Council members Darrel Meyers, Ali Abunimah, and Zaha Hassan; public members of the committee included Maeve Collins representing the Mahoney family, Jennifer Bing of the American Friends Service Committee, and Sabeel Seminarian Michelle Hodge.
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The Mahoney Award was established by the AMEU Board in 2022 to recognize and celebrate exceptional contributions to furthering American understanding of the Middle East, its peoples, histories, and cultures. It is named in honor of AMEU’s legendary director and Board member, John F. Mahoney, and his wife Sharon, and is fully funded by Board contributions.
Additional information is available at www.ameu.org, and email inquiries may be sent to mahoneyaward@ameu.org. AMEU is a 501(c)3 charitable non-profit organization established in 1968. E.I.N 12-2625006