Israel Day Parade puts NYC's political rifts and police response on full display

The debate over support for Israel has, in recent months, shaped City Council legislation, congressional contests, and even the products for sale on the shelves at the Park Slope Food Coop.

Those politics will be on literal display on Fifth Avenue as elected officials — with the notable exception of Mayor Zohran Mamdani — march in the annual Israel Day Parade on Sunday. Mamdani, an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause and the city’s first Muslim mayor, is following through on his pledge last year to skip the event. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish, will be the parade's grand marshal.

The parade has long been considered an important event for New York politicians, especially mayors. Gov. Kathy Hochul, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and City Comptroller Mark Levine are among those planning to attend.

Former Mayor Eric Adams, who has used his post-mayoral platform to criticize Mamdani, announced in a video late Wednesday that he would also march in the parade.

Mamdani and Tisch nodded at their differing political views during a press conference on Thursday about parade security.

“I said on the campaign trail that I wouldn't be attending the parade, and I've made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear,” Mamdani said. At the same time, he stressed that the safety of paradegoers was the top priority at City Hall.

“I don't believe that my presence as the mayor should determine whether or not a New Yorker is safe or secure,” Mamdani said.

Asked if she was concerned about the mayor not attending, Tisch replied, “It’s the mayor's decision not to march, and it is my decision to march proudly.”

City officials said there were currently no known threats against the parade.

Mamdani’s decision not to attend the parade highlights how he has upended political norms amid waning support for Israel nationally and across the world after Oct. 7, 2023, as Israel launched an ongoing war in Gaza in response to the terror attack led by Hamas militants.

Mamdani has repeatedly said that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Earlier this year, he hosted pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion. Khalil continues to fight deportation after leading protests at Columbia University.

The mayor’s open support for the Palestinian cause has inevitably resulted in conflicts with some Jewish New Yorkers, said Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic strategist.

“It's just a fundamental tension that the mayor of New York City holds views that are out of line with pro-Israel Jewish New Yorkers,” Smith said. “He's the mayor now, and he will be for another four years. And it's going to remain uncomfortable, probably for him and for pro-Israel New Yorkers.”

At a recent Gracie Mansion event to celebrate Jewish Heritage Month, officials did not display the Israeli flag as they have in the past. The mayor released a four-minute documentary-style video recognizing Nakba Day on May 15, marking the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 when Israel was founded. Some Jewish leaders criticized the video as one-sided and leaving out key historical context, like the Holocaust.

The Israel Day Parade began in 1964 and has drawn protesters over the years.

Citing threats against Jews, Tisch said this year’s parade will get the largest security detail the NYPD has ever assigned to the event, with the largest number of officers, the largest number of heavy weapons teams ever deployed and comprehensive screening of every person entering the route, including spectators, vendors, participants and press.

"If you think you are too important to be screened, don't come," Tisch said at Thursday's security briefing ahead of the event. "We are not messing around."

Officials said protesters wearing clothing protesting the event will be allowed to enter the parade, but anyone disrupting the event with signs or by sitting down along the route will be removed.

"Anyone who is screened is allowed through the checkpoints,” she said. “But we will not tolerate any disruptions to the parade. Anyone who enters the parade route unauthorized will be arrested."

Some argued against the notion that the event was inherently political.

Menin said the parade was about “coming together” to support the city’s Jewish community amid a rise in antisemitism.

“I think just like many of us have real criticisms about President [Donald] Trump and things that our government is doing, that doesn't mean that we don't march in different parades that celebrate American heritage,” she added. “There's a distinction between the two.”

At Thursday’s press conference, Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council in New York that is organizing the parade, grew emotional reflecting on a young man who told him that the parade was a place where he could wear his kippah – or yarmulke – without covering it with a baseball hat.

“Let's be clear, every day our children should be openly wearing their kippahs,” Treyger said. “Everyone should be their full selves.”