Journalist Is Out at Times Over Denunciation of Israel

An award-winning writer for New York Times Magazine has resigned after signing a public letter saying Israel is conducting "genocide against the Palestinian people." Her editor announced Jazmine Hughes' departure in a staff email Friday evening, the Washington Post reports. "While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times's policy on public protest," Jake Silverstein wrote, per the Times. "This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence." Hughes, who joined the staff in 2015, did not publicly comment.

Hughes' name appears on a statement published online last week by Writers Against the War on Gaza, which says it's dedicated to "liberation for the Palestinian people," per the Wrap. Wright signed an open letter earlier this year criticizing the Times' coverage of transgender issues, which Silverstein said also violated policy, and spoke out against an op-ed column published by the Times in 2020 that urged having the military quell police protests in cities—at one point tweeting, "As if it weren't already hard enough to be a black employee of the New York Times."

Silverstein said Hughes' departure was a mutual decision. "She and I discussed that her desire to stake out this kind of public position and join in public protests isn't compatible with being a journalist at The Times, and we both came to the conclusion that she should resign," he wrote. The open letter also was signed by writers for the Los Angeles Times, Jewish Currents, Al Jazeera, Vox Media, and New York Magazine, per the Wrap. Jamie Lauren Keiles, a Times Magazine contributing writer whose name also appears, said he's severing ties with the paper, calling it "a personal decision about what kind of work I want to be able to do." (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)