Should Masks be Banned at Gaza Protests?

Things got violent outside a Los Angeles orthodox synagogue on Sunday, leading the mayor at a Monday press conference to say that a ban on wearing masks to such protests should be considered. A number of the pro-Palestinian protestors Sunday, who blocked entrance to the synagogue and ended up in fistfights and spraying Bear spray at those attending synagogue, wore masks. Without making a specific proposal, Mayor Karen Bass said that the city should consider the issue -- including "the idea of people wearing masks at protests."

Amanda Berman, founder and executive director of Zioness, said in a statement, "There is a painful irony in the pro-Hamas mob attacking a synagogue on the same day as a ceremony marking the rebuilding of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, which experienced a violent white supremacist attack in which 11 innocent souls were senselessly murdered. As the Jewish community grieves and commemorates a tragic attack from the extreme right, we simultaneously experience a pogrom coming ostensibly from the radical left. Violent antisemitism is coming from every direction. It is up to all of us who identify with the political left to be unequivocally clear: Not In Our Name. We do not condone violence against Jews. Our progressive values demand the absolute condemnation of this barbarous, malignant hate."

There were plenty of condemnations of what happened in front of Congregation Adas Torah, but few concrete proposals for what to do about it.

"Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship -- and engaging in violence -- is never acceptable."

"Yesterday was abhorrent, and blocking access to a place of worship is absolutely unacceptable," Bass said Monday. "This violence was designed to stoke fear. It was designed to divide. But hear me loud and clear: It will fail."

Will it? Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are not the only ones wearing masks. When anti-Palestinian demonstrators at UCLA attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, they also wore masks, which made it difficult for prosecutors to identify any of the agitators who resorted to violence. Prosecutors in both Los Angeles and New York have cited the difficulty of identifying those committing acts of violence in explaining why charges have not been filed arising out of violence in college campuses.

Some of those seeking access to Adas Torah last Sunday were attending a real estate seminar, similar to ones held elsewhere which also attracted protests, about land for sale in Israel in English-speaking neighborhoods. The advertisements for the event did not specify where the land was. Protest defenders claimed they targeted the synagogue because of the event inside. Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Los Angeles, said in a statement the protest "was in response to the blatant violations of both international law and human rights from agencies that seek to make a profit selling brutally stolen Palestinian land as the Israeli government continues its eight-month-long genocidal campaign and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Elected officials and the mainstream media have politicized this incident as religious discrimination as opposed to a human rights issue." If it matters, some of those whose entry to the synagogue was blocked were there to pray. And it shouldn't. That is no excuse for violence.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a ban on masks in New York for subway riders, except for those wearing medical masks for health reasons. "We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior. My team is working on a solution. But on a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes."

New York Mayor Eric Adams seconded the idea, saying that "cowards cover their faces."

Cowardice is not a civil liberties issue. Peaceful protest should be respected and protected with reasonable limitations on its time, place and manner. There is no right to block access to a religious institution, whether it is a service or a seminar that is going on inside. And those who engage in violence have no claim to a right to cover their faces when they do.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.