A few years ago, not wearing a face mask was a symbol of rebellion – against government mandates, infringement on personal autonomy, and lack of faith in “experts” who kept shifting the goal posts on what constituted COVID safety.

Today, wearing a mask has become an emblem of cowardice as antisemitic protesters calling for the eradication of Israel conceal their faces to keep their identities hidden.

The best case scenario is that some in the masked mobs feel a modicum of shame as they harass Jews on campuses and in the streets, realistically, however, it’s an attempt to avoid any responsibility for their actions.

Employers take a dim view of keeping hate-spewers on the payroll.

That, hopefully, is about to change, at least in some states.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are poised to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s recent veto of legislation to criminalize masking, according to the Washington Post. New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul  said earlier this month she supports legislative efforts to ban masks on the subway, citing an incident where masked protesters on a train shouted, “Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.” Student protesters in Ohio, Texas and Florida have been threatened with arrest for covering their faces.

Laws against masking have been on the books for decades — often passed in response to the reign of terror conducted by the hooded Ku Klux Klan —  in at least 18 states and D.C., according to the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law. When the pandemic hit, some lawmakers passed exemptions for health concerns, while others decided not to enforce the anti-mask statues.

The protesters, both those who put up encampments on school campuses and individuals who harass Jews in the street, aren’t concerned with protecting themselves from a virus, they want to shout their ignorance and hate without repercussions.

Cowards all.

We need to see who’s burning the American flag, who among our children’s college circle are chasing Jewish students and calling for the death of Zionists.

One such protester was unmasked, so to speak, after he allegedly accosted a Jewish stranger on a NY subway. The New York Post put the Hezbollah shirt-wearing man on the front page, and the activist organization Jew Hate Database uncovered his identity based on the man’s social media posts. He is 36-year-old Christopher Khamis Victor Husary, and he lives with his mom and dad in a posh suburb of San Francisco.

“Israel is a terror organization and so is America. The number one terrorist is America,” he told the Post.

He has no qualms, apparently, about living in a $1.8 million home in “terrorist” America.

Would he and other like-minded haters of Israel and America be so quick to harass Jews and vandalize property if they could be seen and easily identified? .

There are those who still mask up over COVID worries, those with compromised immune systems especially. Fortunately there are now transparent face masks which offer protection.

Americans have the right to peaceful assembly, to demonstrate against high rents and inequality, racism and other societal ills. There is no such right to harass people because of their faith, nor terrorize or vandalize.  We deserve to see the faces of those who choose to do so.

Editorial cartoon by Chip Bok (Creators Syndicate)