We Bear Witness
We Bear Witness
Documentaries by a Circle Member
We are excited to share news about a new initiative that grew out of a collaboration between members of the Circle Against Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism at USC and JFrg at UCLA (Jewish Faculty Resilience Group at UCLA) who have joined forces in combating antisemitism on our campuses. The project, led by JFrg at UCLA, focuses on creating videos that expose what actually happened on the UCLA campus this past year beyond what the media reported. The creators of the videos wish to remain anonymous. We are proud to be entrusted to communicate their work.
Today we present their first, of many, videos. The video is short—1m 33 sec—but is very informative.
Masking Identity
UCLA protestors claim they are using masks to prevent COVID-19 as they protest and demand that the University of California boycott and divest from Israel. Social media posts by organizers, conversations between JFrg members and protestors, and online footage of students tell a different story: the purpose of the masks is to conceal the identity of the protestors. As discussed in the video, this likely violates California Penal Code §185, which makes it illegal to wear a mask or disguise to evade police detection while committing a public offense. Anti-mask laws in the U.S. date back to the mid-20th century, when states and municipalities passed them to stop the violent activities of the Ku Klux Klan, whose members typically wore hoods of white linen to conceal their identities and to intimidate their targets. Continuing to allow this behavior emboldens those breaking campus rules and the law.
Editors’ note: Protesters everywhere—at USC, UC Davis, Columbia, University of Chicago, and many other campuses—were wearing masks and keffiyehs. The cultural significance of keffiyehs is explained in our Substack post “The Campus Protests Are Not About Social Justice.” The keffiyeh is more than just a scarf. It is, as Jerry Coyne says, the “hipster swastika” (see, for example, Jerry’s post “Pro-Palestinian Demonstration on Campus; Jewish Students Counter Peacefully”). As we documented in our newsletter (May 16, 2024), “loaner keffiyehs,” anti-university administration t-shirts, and whistles were distributed to students to disrupt commencement ceremonies at USC.
Excellent initiative. Because the media tends to ignore or be supportive of the demonstrations--"freedom of assembly," "freedom of speech," "human rights"--most people are unfamiliar with the context of these red-green (revolutionary socialist and Islamic supremacist) movements: the historical imperialism and totalitarianism of Islam, and the revolutionary intent of socialists. Both of these allied movements are determined to destroy Western civilization and to impose their dominance. And they have been quite successful in Europe and North America, in particular in taking over our K12 and university educational systems. Now traitorous civil and government authorities, such as Alvin Bragg the anti-law DA in NY, collude to free these people from the consequences of their crimes. I hope your films will alert people to some aspects of this context.
Definitely they’re wearing masks for disguise. COVID is pretty much over, no one else is wearing masks. Plus keffiyehs are no good at all blocking viruses.