The mask weaponization

If you’re over the age of 55, you might remember seeing PLO leader, Yasser Arafat donning a black and white, checkered keffiyeh everywhere he went. For him, it symbolized the Palestinian identity he came to adopt, because, in truth, he was actually born to an Arab family in Cairo, Egypt. Trying to appear authentic, in his newfound ethnicity, it was important for him to be associated with the head dress which would come to represent the politicized struggle that catapulted him to fame.

The origins of the keffiyeh are said to come from the Iraqi city of Kufa, supposedly the birthplace of that particular cotton scarf, allegedly worn by the working class, rural farmers and peasants, using it to shield themselves from the sun, dust and sand. Today, demand for that garb has skyrocketed throughout international markets, with the majority of them, as most everything else, being produced in China. 

Today, that checkered cloth has come to illicit fear and trepidation. No longer used as an identifying symbol or fashion statement, it is, instead, employed as a full-face wrap and head mask, leaving little doubt that anything peaceful or good will emerge from the person wearing it.

One example involved a recent event which took place at Columbia University where keffiyeh-donned activists burst in and disrupted a class being taught on the subject of modern Israeli history by an Israeli professor. These masked, Israel-hating activists stormed into the lesson, already in progress, handing out propaganda leaflets and accusing the mostly Jewish students of being sympathetic to genocide. 

Throughout the disruption, Columbia students could be heard daring these protesters to remove their masks and have the courage to show their faces, but, true to form, they refused to do so. And why would they? The anonymity emboldened them to terrorize students and faculty alike. And this is part of the strategy, because behind that covering, an unattractive, harmless and pale basement dweller can suddenly take on the aura of an ancient, fearless Middle-Eastern warrior who is to be dreaded.

It is with this newfound awareness that the weaponization of masks, whether those worn during the Covid days or the keffiyeh or the black neck warmer, pulled up to cover everything but one’s eyes, also frequently hidden behind dark sun glasses, is the ultimate scare tactic – almost as frightening as a loaded weapon. Because its visual impact is designed to strike terror in the hearts of ordinary people who are going about the business of life.  

Not expecting to be confronted by faceless beings, whose entire objective is to intimidate, threaten and bully anyone who does not share their warped viewpoint of history, politics or justice, as they see it, suddenly, their activities are upended by these cowardly activists who get off on the immense power they wield the moment their identity is concealed. 

For normal and sane people, the idea that reasonable debate, with the presentation of two opposing positions, is now being replaced by a method of forced acquiescence, due to a piece of cloth which has come to represent terror and apprehension, is a troubling benchmark of where society has landed in its quest to force capitulation of one’s moral code and belief system, simply by the physical weaponization of their face.

We’ve seen it with the green headbands, worn by Hamas terrorists who are immediately identified as those who sanction murder, rape, kidnapping and whatever it takes to achieve their goals of domination over others.

But make no mistake, there is nothing civilized or admirable about the use of terror to change hearts and minds, because it is based on angst, panic and foreboding, all arrows in the quiver of evil men who have exited the civilized platforms of mankind, opting, instead, to employ force and power which are the antithesis of freedom and personal choice.

What must happen, in order to change this deplorable weaponization, is to immediately outlaw its use. That will result in forcing those cowards, who lack the courage to take responsibility as they seek to terrorize those with whom they don’t agree, to show their faces and be held accountable. It might even mean returning to the forum of debate, a civilized concept which allows for all claims to be articulated, followed by the freedom to accept or reject what is being put forth.  

The inability to be open-minded and allow stronger arguments to prevail, is nothing more than a clear display of weakness, which holds individuals captive to the brainwashing by false narratives, designed to create an alternative reality.

Again, take the keffiyeh, historically worn by Bedouins who used it as a protection from the rough climate conditions which they were forced to endure. Hijacked by today’s Woke activists, its alternative meaning has been completely changed to signify “freedom fighters” who aspire to wipe Israel off the map.   

In their aspiration to strike terror into the hearts of others, mask wearers are achieving the type of victories they previously could not attain when they openly addressed campus groups or other places which championed discourse and the exchange of ideas, since their ideas were too radical. 

Thankfully, there has, in recent days, been proposed legislation against mask wearing, called, the anti-mask bill, backed by leading Jewish groups and introduced to the New York state legislature. “If passed, it would establish the crime of ‘masked harassment’ when a person conceals their face for the primary purpose of menacing or harassing.”

Interestingly enough, it has been determined, by those who have introduced this law, that masks are being used as a weapon of intimidation. Jewish legislator, Jeffrey Dinowitz, who is one of the bill’s co-sponsors, hopes to see it enacted sometime this year, stating that “people who wear masks do it for two reasons – to intimidate and to hide their identity.”

Understanding the power behind this tool, the New York Assemblymember has rightly recognized the harm which masking is inflicting upon the general public as those hoping to change opinion through dissemination of fear, are protected while obscuring their faces.  

If successful, the pursuit of activism will have to be done with the full disclosure of one’s identity, as it should be, because anyone who is afraid to be known for their provocative and harmful positions, is no one that should be feared by anyone.  Hiding has always been associated with cowardice, and what we are discovering is that there are no bigger cowards than terrorists – whether they hail from Gaza or from New York campuses.