Zohran Mamdani stayed away from New York City’s annual Israel Parade on Sunday, making good on a campaign-season pledge that put him at odds with some of his fellow Democrats and left him at the center of a widening fight over Israel politics in the city. The mayor did not march, while Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and a leading figure on the nationalist right, did.
Mamdani had said last week that he would not attend and that he had made his views on the Israeli government abundantly clear. He has accused that government of genocide in Gaza. For readers searching the parade now, that decision matters because the march turned into a public test of whether New York’s Democratic leaders could still appear together at an event billed as a celebration of Jewish pride and unity.
The absence carried extra weight because Mamdani is believed to be the first mayor to miss the parade since it began in 1964. Brad Lander also stayed away, as did the progressive groups Israelis for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. But the list of Democrats who showed up was long: Jessica Tisch, Chuck Schumer, Dan Goldman, Jerry Nadler, Kathy Hochul, Letitia James, Eric Adams, Michael and Andrew Cuomo all attended.
Tisch made her own line plain. “It is the mayor’s decision not to march, and it is my decision to march proudly,” she said at the parade. That split was sharpened by Smotrich’s presence, which put Democratic politicians in an awkward position as they marched alongside a minister who has drawn fierce criticism from opponents inside and outside Israel.
Jonathan Greenblatt called Mamdani’s absence “an ideological assertion and a disgraceful one,” while the New York Post splashed a photo of him riding a bike on its front page under the headline, “Cycle of hate. Zo snubs Israel parade, goes on bike ride instead.” Ben Rhodes, meanwhile, criticized Democrats who chose to march beside Smotrich, asking why it should be controversial for Mamdani to skip the parade “bc of his principles” but not for others to march with “a fascist bigot like Smotrich.”
On Monday, the backlash widened. Hochul said on X that Smotrich was “a far-right extremist whose hateful and divisive rhetoric is fundamentally at odds with the values we hold dear in New York,” adding that “yesterday’s parade was a celebration of Jewish pride, community, and unity” and that she strongly condemned his participation. James wrote separately that “Islamophobia has no place in New York” and said she unequivocally condemned Smotrich’s hate.
Smotrich’s appearance was his first trip to the United States since March last year, and he said nearly two weeks earlier that the International Criminal Court was seeking an arrest warrant against him. That backdrop is what made Sunday’s parade more than a ceremonial march: it became a live demonstration of how sharply some Democrats are now divided over Israel, and how hard it may be for them to share a platform with one another, or with Smotrich, the next time the parade comes around.
