NEW YORK (AP) – Mayor Zohran Mamdani boycotted the annual Israel Day Parade in New York on Sunday. Mamdani is the first American city mayor not to participate in the annual march.
Journalist at HLN
Source: ANP
Around noon, thousands of people marched through the streets of Manhattan, waving Israeli flags and blue and white balloons. The organization and the police had expected 40,000 participants, but there were “considerably fewer”, reported the newspaper ‘The New York Times’.
The parade has been held since 1964 in solidarity with Israel. New York is home to approximately one million Jewish residents, the largest urban Jewish population outside of Israel.
During the election campaign I already said that I would not attend the parade
Genocide
Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and has been systematically violating the rights of Palestinians for decades. “During the election campaign I already said that I would not attend the parade,” he said earlier this week. “And I have made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear.”
Governor Kathy Hochul of New York joined in. She did this “out of resistance” to anti-Semitism, she said during the press conference before the event. “When you go to a place of worship with your family, you should not have to put up with intimidation, threats or hatred from anyone. We will make sure you are protected.”
The far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also walked through Manhattan. He had joined a historically large delegation from the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Smotrich is considered a hardliner within the Israeli government and has repeatedly spoken out against a Palestinian state and in favor of full annexation of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
