Mask bans advance across US, worrying anti-Israel activists

Anti-Israel activists have been increasingly concerned as proposed mask bans have been advanced in states and cities across the United States of America.

Jewish Voice for Peace on Tuesday condemned recent legislation in North Carolina, bills in New York and Chicago, and proposals in Los Angeles.

The mask bans in response to anti-Israel riots and protests denied protesters with health issues the ability to protest, JVP said on X, as without medical protection some activists would otherwise not be able to exercise this right.

“Immunocompromised people have the right to protest. Our movement includes immunocompromised Palestinians who are fighting back against the murder of their loved ones and immunocompromised Jews who are fighting back against a genocide being committed in their name,” said JVP.

Writers Against the War on Gaza said last Friday that masks not only stopped the spread of COVID-19 but prevented state surveillance and for the identities and details of anti-Israel activists to be shared online.

The North Carolina State Legislature passed last Thursday a bill enhancing restrictions and punishments for criminals seeking to conceal their identity. If convicted of a misdemeanor or felony while wearing a mask, then the class of the offense would be raised. Exemptions included holiday costumes, work safety, public events and celebrations, and medical protection.

Decision decried as facist

Gov. Roy Cooper had vetoed the bill on June 21 because it created “removes protections and threatens criminal charges for people who want to protect their health by wearing a mask” and was supposedly developed through a scheme by anonymous out-of-state billionaires to flood North Carolina with campaign contributions to rescue extreme right-wing candidates that Republicans now fear will lose.” The House voted to override the veto.

New York City Revolutionary Youth, Palestine Solidarity Alliance, New York City Resistance Coalition protested against a proposed mask ban on Saturday outside Governor Kathy Hochul’s Office and outside the offices of Fox News and the New York Post.

Hochul had first raised the idea of a mask ban on subways on June 13 in response to anti-Israel protests incidents.There are few bills against masks introduced in the New York State Assembly in recent months. Sen. Jame Skoufis’s June 14 bill would make it unlawful for a person at a lawful or unlawful assembly to conceal their identity unless the attire was for medical or religious reasons.

Skoufis on social media on Monday defended his bill, saying that the legislation would not interfere with those still concerned about COVID-19, and that critics were taking the side of the Ku Klux Klan.

“Let’s provide law enforcement a needed law change to identify those bad actors with CCTV... who currently cannot be identified,” said Skoufis. “They’re using masks with impunity for the sole purpose of hiding their identify from police. Meanwhile, people are being tormented, harassed, and assaulted."

Within Our Lifetime called such legislative measures “fascist” in a Thursday X post.

Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez proposed an ordinance on May 22, calling for “Enhanced penalties for concealing or attempting to conceal identity.”

Lopez said on social media on Tuesday that criminals wearing masks were being protected by political extremists. On June 18 he argued that masks that were not medical devices should be met with increased penalties.

“You do not have a constitutional right to privacy while committing crimes,” Lopez responded to arguments that the ordinance was unconstitutional.

Following last Sunday’s anti-Israel riot at the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood, Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference with several community leaders last Monday in which she discussed several ideas for preventing such events in the future, including “permits for protests, the idea of people wearing masks at protests, and establishing clear lines of demarcation of what is legal and what is not.” Pico-Robertson is a neighborhood noted for its significant Jewish community.

The ACLU said in May that the Ohio Attorney General in early May had notified 14 public universities that student protesters could be charged with a felony under an old anti-mask law, which could carry penalties of 6-18 months in prison. Administrators from the University of North Carolina in March had also warned protesters that their activities could violate the state’s pre-existing anti-mask laws and university policy.

Protests were arrested in April at University of Florida and charges included wearing masks on public property, and at the end of April state troopers were called in to University of Texas at Austin after rules such as wearing face masks were breached.

“At a time when both public and private actors are increasingly turning to invasive surveillance technologies to identify protesters, mask-wearing is an important way for us to safeguard our right to speak out on issues of public concern,” the ACLU wrote in May.

“During the Gaza protests, pro-Israel activists and organizations have posted the faces and personal information of pro-Palestine activists to intimidate them, get them fired, or otherwise shame them for their views. These doxing attempts have intensified, with viral videos showing counter-protesters demanding that pro-Palestinian protesters remove their masks at rallies. Professionally, employers have terminated workers for their comments about Israel and Palestine, and CEOs have demanded universities give them the names of protesters in order to blacklist them from jobs.”