Why campus protesters aim for anonymity with face masks, checkered Palestinian kaffiyehs

Over the past week, Fabiola, a sophomore at Columbia, joined an encampment on her university’s quad, risked suspension and disrupted campus life, all in an effort to draw attention to the Palestinian cause.

She describes stopping Israel’s deadly siege of the Gaza Strip as a moral duty — an urgent imperative around which she has reoriented her life.

But as she participated in one of the most visible protests on the planet last week, Fabiola decided to hold one very important thing back: her identity.