A writer from the New York Times (NYT) resigned from their post after publishing an anti-Israel open letter.
The NYT announced in an email to staff on Friday that Jazmine Hughes, who joined the paper in 2015, has quit following backlash after violating newsroom policy by signing an open letter that accused the state of Israel of trying to “conduct genocide against the Palestinian people.”
The enemy's at the gates.
— 🇺🇲Salty Texan (@texan_maga) November 5, 2023
Crowd chants "Allahu Akbar" outside the gates of the White House in Washington, D.C pic.twitter.com/UKTiIGUUcT
The letter accused Israel of targeting journalists and killing thousands of Palestinians since the terrorist organization Hamas launched an attack on the Gaza Strip earlier last month. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, the death toll is approaching 10,000.
“Israel is an apartheid state, designed to privilege Jewish citizens at the expense of Palestinians, heedless of the many Jewish people, both in Israel and across the diaspora, who oppose their own conscription in an ethno-nationalist project,” the letter read.
“We come together as writers, journalists, academics, artists, and other culture workers to express our solidarity with the people of Palestine. We stand with their anticolonial struggle for freedom and for self-determination, and with their right to resist occupation. We stand firmly by Gaza’s people, victims of a genocidal war the United States government continues to fund and arm with military aid—a crisis compounded by the illegal settlement and dispossession of the West Bank and the subjugation of Palestinians within the state of Israel,” it continued.
NYT editor Jake Silverstein said that Hughes also violated the policy earlier this year when she signed an open letter protesting the magazine’s coverage of transgender issues.
“While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest,” Silverstein said in the email. “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”
“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,” the email continued.
Reporters have reached out to Hughes for comment, but she has not immediately returned the request.
