A veteran New York Times Magazine writer resigned in disgrace last week after signing a letter accusing Israel of “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Washington Post reported that Jazmine Hughes stepped down after coming under fire for supporting a statement from “Writers Against the War on Gaza.” She went to work for the Times in 2015 and garnered several awards in left-wing media circles.
The letter she inked regurgitated Hamas talking points on everything from Israeli “occupation” to unconfirmed casualty numbers. The protest writing also claimed without substantiation that Israeli targeting of journalists in the Strip had killed at least 24 reporters.
NY Times writer Jazmine Hughes resigns after accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ https://t.co/HmE6Qd6PXs pic.twitter.com/YvxzCJ6b2w
— New York Post (@nypost) November 4, 2023
Hughes signed on to the missive which decried Tel Aviv’s retaliation to over 1,400 of its citizens being massacred on Oct. 7.
It asserted it was penned in response “to the silencing of dissent and to racist and revisionist media cycles, further perpetuated by Israel’s attempts to bar reporting in Gaza.”
Hughes even took the inadvisable step of criticizing the Times for its coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas terrorists. “We condemn those in our industries who continue to enable apartheid and genocide.”
This crossed a line for magazine editor Jake Silverstein.
He responded to the writer’s resignation. “While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest.” He said the policy has his full support and is intended to maintain the outlet’s “commitment to independence.”
Silverstein said he discussed his writer’s public position with her. After emphasizing that such a protest is not compatible with being a journalist, “we both came to the conclusion that she should resign.”
A Times contributing writer, Jamie Lauren Keiles, posted on social media Friday that she is also stepping down after signing the offending letter.
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, she said she concluded the magazine was extracting more from her than it was providing to her. Keiles called her choice to quit a “personal decision.”
Hughes also ran afoul of her employers earlier this year when she signed another letter criticizing the “newspaper of record” for its coverage of transgender issues.
The New York Post reported another controversial Times employee who covers the Israel-Hamas war is still on the job. Soliman Hijjy, the outlet said, has a “history of social media posts praising Adolf Hitler.”
