Strain is constructing on Columbia College to enact an official campus masks ban as Jewish alumni teams evaluate anti-Israel protesters hiding their identities to the Ku Klux Klan and elected officers, together with Mayor Eric Adams, say the face coverings give cowl to criminals.
The renewed push to outlaw masks comes amid contemporary protests sparked by the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a Palestinian former Columbia grad pupil who performed an instrumental function in anti-Israel demonstration organized by pupil teams who praised Hamas and the Oct. 7 terror assaults.
“Masks and face coverings at rallies — whether or not a white hood or a checkered keffiyeh — are worn to intimidate and conceal wrongdoing, and shouldn’t have any place on school campuses,” mentioned Rory Lancman, a lawyer, former NYC councilman, a former NY assemblyman and a 1995 graduate of Columbia Legislation.
Matthew Schweber, a member of the Columbia Jewish Alumni Affiliation and lawyer who has dealt with First Modification circumstances agreed it was inexcusable their alma mater hadn’t but imposed a masks ban.
“The free Palestine motion is the trendy manifestation of the Ku Klux Klan,” mentioned Schweber, noting through the civil rights motion a half-century in the past, protesters didn’t protect their identities.
“There isn’t any cause why these protesters ought to be capable to conceal their identification,” he advised The Publish. “Masks carrying has nothing to do with free speech.
“Masks carrying has to do with harassing and intimidating Jewish college students on campus and silencing them.”
Faces shrouded with keffiyeh head scarves have develop into a standard sight at anti-Israel protests at faculties, together with at a pair of campus constructing takeovers at Barnard School in latest weeks, the place directors supplied to fulfill with the unruly group in the event that they eliminated their masks — however the protesters refused, in keeping with faculty spokesperson Robin Levine.
“They have been banned into COVID an we have to return to that.” Adams mentioned of masks ban from the Metropolis Corridor blue room Tuesday. “The masks and having the ability to cowl your face is permitting folks to be emboldened,” he added.
“You’ll see so much much less cowardly actions if folks weren’t capable of conceal behind masks,” he mentioned. “And never solely protesters however people who find themselves committing crimes, going into shops, robberies, among the assaults that we’re seeing.”
Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres mentioned advised The Publish he absolutely helps a masks ban at Columbia and Barnard.
“There must be a masks ban in every single place in New York, and nowhere extra so than school campuses, which have develop into cesspools of antisemitism,” he mentioned.
Torres has beforehand accused Gov. Kathy Hochul of dragging her toes on a regulation that will impose restrictions on face coverings throughout public demonstrations as a part of the brand new state finances, anticipated to be adopted by April 1.
William A. Jacobson, founding father of EqualProtect.org and a Cornell College Legislation Professor, weighed in, “The usage of face masking has emboldened violence by anti-Israel and anti-American activists.”
Elizabeth Coplon, Chief Working Officer for StopAntisemitism, mentioned the group absolutely helps a masks ban for Columbia and Barnard demonstrators utilizing them to intimidate their Jewish friends.
“Nobody can be allowed to stalk and threaten African-Individuals whereas carrying Klan hoods, neither ought to anybody be allowed to harass and menace Jews wrapping their faces with keffiyehs,” she advised The Publish.
Columbia College and Barnard each declined to remark.
Khalil, a authorized everlasting resident married to a US citizen, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers Saturday at his university-owned condominium, in keeping with this lawyer.
The White Home claimed that he “led actions aligned to Hamas” at protests relationship again to final spring at Columbia, and extra just lately at Barnard final week.
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