by Vivek Saxena | BPR
A New York Times writer has voluntarily resigned (or quit) after having signed a letter accusing Israel of perpetrating “genocide” against the Palestinians.
“Jazmine Hughes, who joined the paper in 2015 and has won multiple national awards, was one of the most prominent names on a statement published last week by a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza,” according to The Washington Post.
Seen here, the controversial statement/letter contains a litany of Hamas talking points, such as the claim that Israel is purposefully targeting journalists and the claim that Israel is occupying the Palestinian people.
“We stand in opposition to the silencing of dissent and to racist and revisionist media cycles, further perpetuated by Israel’s attempts to bar reporting in Gaza, where journalists have been both denied entry and targeted by Israeli forces. At least 24 journalists in Gaza have now been killed,” the letter reads.
The letter also takes as fact Hamas’ claims of Palestinian casualties.
“Israel’s war against Gaza is an attempt to conduct genocide against the Palestinian people. This war did not begin on October 7th. However, in the last 19 days, the Israeli military has killed over 6,500 Palestinians, including more than 2,500 children, and wounded over 17,000,” the letter reads.
The letter even accuses Israel of being an “apartheid state.”
“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,” it reads.
Most notably, the letter includes criticism of Hughes’ former employer: “[T]he New York Times editorial board wrote that ‘what Israel is fighting to defend is a society that values human life and the rule of law,’” the letter complains.
According to the Post, Times editor Jake Silverstein announced Hughes’ resignation in an email to staffers sent Friday morning.
“While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest. This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence,” the email reportedly read.
“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,” it continued.
Silverstein added that this isn’t the first time Hughes has butted heads with the paper. Earlier this year, she reportedly signed a letter slamming the Times’ surprisingly fair and balanced coverage of transgenderism.
According to reports, Hughes also partook in the backlash that the Times faced when it dared to publish a column from Sen. Tom Cotton during the deadly BLM riots of 2020.
All this said, Hughes isn’t the only one out at the Times this week. Jamie Lauren Keiles, a trans Jew who used to contribute to The New York Times Magazine and who also signed the controversial pro-Hamas letter, also resigned this week.
In tweets posted Friday, she claimed she resigned because her work at the Times was starting to interfere with her work as an activist.
“[N]obody asked me to leave. was a personal decision about what kind of work i want to be able to do,” she wrote.
Look:
It’s not clear though why, since she also signed the pro-Hamas letter, she too wasn’t approached by Silverstein …
