New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not attend Sunday’s Israel Day Parade, breaking with a custom long treated as a must-do for mayors on Fifth Avenue. The decision lands just days before the march and puts a sharp edge on an event that has long drawn political leaders into a sea of flags and cheering crowds.
For many readers, the question is not whether the parade will go on — it will — but why Mamdani is staying away now. He said Thursday that he had told voters on the campaign trail he would not attend and that he had made his views on the Israeli government abundantly clear. His office has also spent weeks preparing security for the march, with the mayor promising a robust police presence so the event can proceed safely and peacefully. The story has become a test of how New York manages one of its most visible civic rituals under a mayor who is also the city’s first Muslim mayor. Zohran Mamdani says he will skip Israel Day parade in New York
The parade itself has gone by different names over the years, but its place in city politics has been remarkably steady. New York City has America’s largest Jewish population, and mayors and governors have often shown up on Fifth Avenue as a signal of support. Mamdani’s absence follows two weeks after his office released a video commemorating the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe used to describe the displacement of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment. That video appeared to be the first such recognition from a sitting New York City mayor.
The move has not gone over quietly. Rabbi Marc Schneier called the decision “a slap in the face to all Jewish New Yorkers,” and he dismissed the Nakba video as “propaganda,” telling Mamdani, “Do us a favor, stay home” and “We don’t need you. We don’t want you.” Schneier’s reaction reflects how loaded the parade has become, especially as support for Israel among Americans has eroded in recent years and the war in Gaza has stirred public anger well beyond New York.
There is also an unusual split inside City Hall’s public posture. Police commissioner Jessica Tisch said she would attend the parade and “march proudly,” even as the mayor stays away. Mamdani has said his administration has been preparing for weeks to keep the event safe for all who take part, but the details that matter most to people heading to Fifth Avenue remain unsettled: how large the police presence will be, and whether protests or disruptions will surface along the route. On Sunday, the parade will go ahead with the mayor on the sidelines and the city watching closely to see how that choice plays out.
