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The New York Times announced Friday that a writer at its magazine had resigned after violating editorial policy by signing an open letter accusing Israel of trying to “commit genocide against the Palestinian people “.
Jazmine Hughes, who joined the newspaper in 2015 and has won several national awards, was one of the prominent names in a statement released last week by a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza. She accused Israel of targeting journalists and killing thousands of Palestinians since October 7, when the Israeli government declared war on Hamas after the militant group launched a bloody attack from its base in the Gaza Strip Israel killed at least 1,400 people and dozens were taken hostage. The death toll in Gaza since the start of the war is nearly 10,000.
“Israel is an apartheid state designed to privilege Jewish citizens at the expense of Palestinians, with no regard for the many Jewish people both in Israel and throughout the Diaspora who resist their own conscription as part of an ethno-nationalist project.” , the statement says. It particularly criticized a New York Times editorial that offered qualified support for Israel’s retaliatory attacks while imploring the country to protect Palestinian civilians.
“While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of the Times’ policy on public protest,” magazine editor Jake Silverstein wrote in an email to staff Friday night. “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”
Silverstein said Hughes also violated the policy earlier this year when she signed an open letter protesting the Times’ coverage of transgender issues. “She and I discussed that her desire to take such a public position and engage in public protests was inconsistent with her work as a journalist at The Times, and we both concluded that she should resign,” he wrote in the newspaper Email.
Hughes did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday morning. The Times declined to comment beyond Silverstein’s email.
Hughes has won a number of awards during his time as a writer and editor at the Times, including a National Magazine Award in March for profiles on Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg. Forbes named her one of the top “30 Under 30” journalists several years earlier, in part for her work helping to diversify her newsroom.
She was instrumental in criticizing her newspaper’s editorial in 2020 after it published a column by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in which he called on the military to invade U.S. cities. The newspaper later said the column did not meet its standards and that the incident helped force editor James Bennet out of the company.
The Israel-Gaza war has forced many institutions to grapple with members who care about the conflict, which involves a long history of Israeli occupation and deadly military reprisals in Palestinian territory.
Journalists from various news outlets have resigned or been fired in connection with reporting and commentary on the Israel-Gaza war.
David Velasco was fired as editor-in-chief of Artforum after the art magazine published an open letter in which he supported the liberation of Palestinians and called for a ceasefire. The letter led to several employees resigning in protest, Vanity Fair reported.
Two BBC reporters resigned last month over disagreements with war reporting. Noah Abrahams resigned after the network failed to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization. And Bassam Bounenni stepped down from his role as North Africa correspondent “as my professional conscience required,” he said on X. formerly Twitter.
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