The bill was approved late on Monday, with all 12 Republicans in the county legislature voting in favor. The seven Democrats abstained.

New York’s suburban Nassau County has passed a bill to ban the wearing of masks intended to hide the identity of pro-Palestinian protesters against US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, Reuters has reported.

The mask ban will cover any sort of public protest, but lawmakers in the Republican-controlled county say that the bill aims to prevent protesters who engage in alleged violence and anti-Semitism from hiding their identity and avoiding accountability. 

Civil rights advocates view the step as an infringement on free speech rights.

The bill was approved late on Monday, with all 12 Republicans in the county legislature voting in favor. The seven Democrats abstained.

‘Watering down’ Genocide: No More Moral Compromises on Palestine, Please

If it becomes a local law, anyone with a face covering that conceals the identity of the wearer will be guilty of a misdemeanor that can be punished with up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. 

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, said that, “Unless someone has a medical condition or a religious imperative, people should not be allowed to cover their face in a manner that hides their identity when in public.”  He is expected to sign the bill into law.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has condemned the bill as an attack on free speech. “Masks protect people who express political opinions that are unpopular,” said Susan Gottehrer, the Nassau County regional director of NYCLU. “Making anonymous protest illegal chills political action and is ripe for selective enforcement.”

Gottehrer added that the mask ban’s exceptions were inadequate. “Nassau County police officers are not health professionals or religious experts capable of deciding who needs a mask and who doesn’t,” she insisted.

That mask ban in Nassau County, NY is a clear and present danger to public health: we are in the 5th year of the pandemic and are at 1 million infections a day. https://t.co/He5yoA6tQR

— Fix It Mom (Taylor's Version) (@momfxit) August 6, 2024

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza. 

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.  

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,653 Palestinians have been killed, and 91,535 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

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Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’. 

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children. 

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.  

(MEMO, PC)