New York — Preventing someone from entering a house of worship, or behaving in a way that makes congregants entering the building fear for their safety, is now a crime in New York under a law approved after a series of raucous demonstrations outside synagogues.
The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday, also explicitly allows police to set up a 50-foot security perimeter outside houses of worship where protests are not permitted.
“All New Yorkers should be able to enter their house of worship and practice their religion without fear,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Critics worry that buffer zones could be used to suppress peaceful demonstrations or criminalize freedom of expression.
“This law threatens to discourage activism at a time when New Yorkers’ voices are needed more than ever, which will be a boon to the Trump administration,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “This effort to trade away the rights of New Yorkers was needless and reflects the worst kind of governance.”
The governor signed the law after a series of protests outside synagogues hosting real estate events promoting immigration to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Pro-Palestinian groups say the events are part of a years-long campaign to expel Arabs from Israel and the territories it controls. They also assert that the events facilitate the growth of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
However, some Jewish leaders described the demonstrations as anti-Semitic.
During one protest outside a synagogue in Queens, activists chanted pro-Hamas statements. Other demonstrations turned into clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups.
The new law creates a misdemeanor charge for people who interfere with access to houses of worship.
The idea of creating a protest buffer zone has been under consideration for months, raising questions about how the government will balance protecting freedom of expression and the right to worship in legislation that could pass legal muster. US Supreme Court in 2014 hit down A 35-foot protest-free zone outside abortion clinics in Massachusetts has been declared unconstitutional.
The law signed by Hochul applies statewide and applies to any houses of worship, including mosques, which have also been targeted by protests over the years.
New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani also signed a separate local law requiring the New York Police Department to disclose plans on how it will handle protests outside houses of worship and rules on how perimeter security will be used.
Mamdani vetoed a similar measure that would have applied to protests outside schools over concerns that his definition of an educational facility was too broad.