Anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace condemns New York’s proposed buffer zone for synagogue protests

Anti-Zionist activist groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, condemn New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal for a buffer zone around synagogues to prevent the harassment of congregants during protests.

The activist groups, led by the legal advocacy organization Palestine Legal, call the proposal a “serious threat to New Yorkers’ First Amendment rights.”

The proposal does not seek to ban protests, but would establish a buffer zone of 25 feet (7.5 meters) around houses of worship where protests would not be allowed. The proposal would also protect non-Jewish houses of worship.

Hochul said the proposed law’s aim is “so those who simply want to pray can do so without fear or harassment.”

The proposal comes after two protests at New York City synagogues raised alarms in the Jewish community.

The demonstrators said they were targeting events connected to West Bank settlements, but the protesters chanted in support of terrorism and violence and harassed Jews with discriminatory epithets.

One of the protests, last week in Queens, took place more than 25 feet from the synagogue, so the law would not have had any effect.

“This proposed regulation sends a dangerous message that if people want to insulate their violations of international law from dissent, they need only relocate their events into houses of worship to suppress protest,” the anti-Zionist groups say in a joint statement also signed by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Pal-Awda, the group that led the two synagogue protests.