Columbia Under Pressure to Enact Mask Ban Amid Anti-Israel Protests
“The use of face masking has emboldened violence by anti-Israel and anti-American activists.”
If these students are proud of what they’re doing, let them show their faces to the world. Professor Jacobson is quoted in this piece.
The New York Post reports:
Jewish Columbia grads, NY pols demand school-wide mask ban, calling out ‘emboldened’ anti-Israel protesters
Pressure is building on Columbia University to enact an official campus mask ban as Jewish alumni groups compare anti-Israel protesters hiding their identities to the Ku Klux Klan and elected officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, say the face coverings give cover to criminals.
The renewed push to outlaw masks comes amid fresh protests sparked by the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a Palestinian former Columbia grad student who played an instrumental role in anti-Israel demonstrations organized by student groups who praised Hamas and the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
“Masks and face coverings at rallies — whether a white hood or a checkered keffiyeh — are worn to intimidate and conceal wrongdoing, and should have no place on college campuses,” said Rory Lancman, a lawyer, former NYC councilman, a former NY assemblyman and a 1995 graduate of Columbia Law.
Matthew Schweber, a member of the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association and lawyer who has handled First Amendment cases agreed it was inexcusable their alma mater hadn’t yet imposed a mask ban.
“The free Palestine movement is the modern manifestation of the Ku Klux Klan,” said Schweber, noting during the civil rights movement a half-century ago, protesters did not shield their identities.
“There is no reason why these protesters should be able to hide their identity,” he told The Post. “Mask wearing has nothing to do with free speech…
William A. Jacobson, founder of EqualProtect.org and a Cornell University Law Professor, weighed in, “The use of face masking has emboldened violence by anti-Israel and anti-American activists.”
Elizabeth Coplon, Chief Operating Officer for StopAntisemitism, said the organization fully supports a mask ban for Columbia and Barnard demonstrators using them to intimidate their Jewish peers.
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Comments
How about a Columbia ban.
Until recently NY state had a mask ban, which was originally enacted to combat the KKK. I think they repealed it for the Wuhan epidemic.
Which was a dumb way to address a legitimate exception. I still wear a medical mask because of the side effects of chemo. It ought to be very simple to build in an exception for bona fide medical reasons, similar to Wisconsin’s exception for purposes of amusement (at least as that statute read in the 60s and 70s.
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