New York county bans mask-wearing in public after anti-Israel protests

New York’s Nassau County, just east of New York City on Long Island, has officially banned wearing masks in public except for health or religious reasons, in a move seeking to crack down on violent protests by anti-Israel activists who cover their faces.

Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, calls it a “bill that protects the public” as he signs it into law.

The county’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved the ban on face coverings on August 5. According to legislator Howard Kopel, lawmakers were responding to “antisemitic incidents, often perpetrated by those in masks” since the Oct. 7 start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The newly signed law makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for anyone in Nassau to wear a face covering to hide their identity in public. It exempts people who wear masks “for health, safety, religious or cultural purposes, or for the peaceful celebration of a holiday or similar religious or cultural event for which masks or facial coverings are customarily worn.”

Susan Gottehrer, regional director of the New York Civil Liberties Union for Nassau, says in a statement that the law’s “so-called health and religious exceptions” will allow police officers “who are not medical or religious experts, but who do have a track record of racially-biased enforcement — to determine who needs a mask and who doesn’t, and who goes to jail.”