New York Times writer resigns after signing letter protesting Israel-Gaza war

Jazmine Hughes, an award-winning writer for the New York Times Magazine, resigned from the publication on Friday after violating editorial policy by signing a letter expressing support for the Palestinians and protesting the Israeli siege in Gaza.

Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine, announced Ms. Hughes’ resignation in an email to staff members on Friday evening.

“While I respect that she has strong beliefs, this was a clear violation of The Times policy on public protest,” Mr. Silverstein wrote. “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our quest for independence.”

Mr. Silverstein said Ms. Hughes had previously violated the policy by signing a public letter this year. That letter, which was also signed by other contributors to The Times, protested the newspaper’s coverage of transgender issues.

“She and I discussed that her desire to take these types of public positions and participate in public protests was incompatible with the journalistic work at The Times, and we both concluded that she should resign,” Mr. wrote Silverstein. in his Friday note.

Ms Hughes declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Times had no further comment.

Ms Hughes joined The Times in 2015 and worked as an editor and writer for the magazine. In 2020, she won an American Society of Magazine Editors Next award for journalists under 30. This year, she won a National Magazine Award for writing profiles, for articles on Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg.

The petition that Ms. Hughes signed about the war between Israel and Hamas was published online last week by a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza. The group, which describes itself as “an ad hoc coalition committed to solidarity and the horizon of liberation for the Palestinian people,” denounced what it described as Israel’s “elimination attack” on the Palestinians, as well as the deaths of journalists who reported on the war. It was signed by hundreds of people, including other well-known journalists and authors.

“We stand firmly with the people of Gaza,” the letter said.

On Friday, a contributing writer at the magazine who also signed the letter, Jamie Lauren Keiles, said in a post on X that he would no longer contribute to the publication. He said it was “a personal decision about what kind of work I want to be able to do.”