After months of antisemitic violence and vandalism by terror-supporting protesters in New York City, legislators are proposing a mask ban to bring pro-Hamas protesters to justice and tamp down the chaos that has engulfed the city.
Since the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis on October 7 and the kidnapping of 250 more, anti-Israel protesters donning keffiyehs, medical masks and bandanas have become a hallmark of the movement that has shocked America with its overt antisemitism and support for terror.
Evoking the U.S. Constitution and weaponizing American liberties, protesters claim it’s their right to wear masks. Politicians, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, argue that the masks are a means to avoid accountability for breaking the law and, thus, should be banned.
“Cowards hide their faces when they want to do something disgraceful,” said Adams.
In the digital age, hiding one’s identity is difficult, and masking provides the veneer of anonymity. But if protesters are proud of their cause, why are they hiding?
Anti-Mask Laws Across the US
Proponents of mask-wearing among anti-Israel activists claim that covering their faces is a right protected by the laws of free speech and association. However, no such right is spelled out in the Constitution. When it affects public safety, the right to wear masks has been denied by the courts.
The United States has a long history of banning masks to protect the public. Anti-mask laws, originally designed to stop the KKK and other criminal activity, are still in place in states such as Florida, Alabama and Georgia.
In New York, the original law banning masks was passed in 1845 to quell “anti-rent riots,” an armed revolt by farmers in the Hudson Valley. The statute addressed a specific group of insurrectionists who disguised themselves as Indians and proceeded to murder law enforcement officers attempting to serve writs on them.
Due to COVID-19 health concerns, the New York state legislature repealed the law in 2020.
Pro-Hamas protesters have rocked New York in recent months. On May 2, 2024, New York State Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-Staten Island) introduced legislation “establishing the crimes of deceptive wearing of a mask and aggravated deceptive wearing of a mask.”
Law enforcement and university administrators in Ohio, Texas and North Carolina have used anti-mask laws during the anti-Israel encampments of April 2024 to break up pro-Hamas protests on their college campuses.
Protesters Rail Against Potential Mask Ban
NY’s mask-ban initiative has already spurred protests. On June 29, 2024, outside the office of Gov. Hochul in NYC, anti-Israel groups, including Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and New York City (NYC) Revolutionary Youth, rallied their troops to protest the proposed ban.
WOL’s long-standing “Rally Toolkit” instructs protesters to “Protect Yourself: Cover your face if you do not want to be identified.” The many chapters of Students for Justice of Palestine (SJP) also encourage their followers to wear masks when protesting.
In response to NY’s proposed mask ban, NYC Revolutionary Youth published an article in the self-declared “revolutionary” and “class conscious” publication, The New York Partisan, advocating that protesters should disregard the law if it is passed:
“Whether they allow us to wear masks or not we will wear them, we will defy this law because it means nothing to us…We will have to hit the imperialists where it hurts and disregard their laws when necessary...these laws come from the same government and politicians that facilitating [sic] a genocide in Palestine, they have no validity and we should treat them as such.”
(Of note is the fact that the author never explains why the group promotes mask-wearing for protesters in the first place.)
In a since-removed post [slide 6] from July 2, 2024, the same group states its support for terror, writing, “We commend H7mas [Hamas], the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Palestinian Islamic J1had as they wage armed struggle against the Zionist entity [Israel].”
The NYC Revolutionary Youth Instagram account was suspended, but on July 5, the same group put out an article in The New York Partisan describing their support for Hamas and other terror organizations.
In a feeble attempt at deflection, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) claims that mask usage at protests is for medical reasons – specifically, to protect the immunocompromised from long COVID. However, they belie their deception when they write, “This is another instance of modern-day McCarthyism escalating against anyone who criticizes the state of Israel.”
Protesters and community leaders alike understand that masks are being used to avoid identification and evade responsibility for criminal activity and hate crimes. One of the legal routes used by local governments in the South to end the harassment and crimes of the KKK was the anti-mask laws. New York has reached a point where the mobs must be stopped; forcing them to show their faces is one step toward that.
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