\n<\/p>\n
NEW YORK — <\/span>New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not attend an annual parade honoring Israel on Sunday, breaking with a decades-long political custom because of his support of Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n Though it has gone by different names over the years, the Israel Day parade has always been a must-attend event for mayors, governors and other political leaders eager to win over the throngs of flag-waving revelers who congregate on Fifth Avenue to celebrate the birth of the Jewish state in 1948.<\/p>\n Not so for Mamdani. Two weeks ago the mayor’s office released a video commemorating the Nakba<\/a>, an Arabic word for \u201ccatastrophe\u201d that is used to describe the displacement of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel\u2019s establishment.<\/p>\n \u201cI said on the campaign trail that I wouldn\u2019t be attending the parade, and I\u2019ve made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear,\u201d Mamdani said at a news conference Thursday.<\/p>\n But he also promised a robust police presence to make sure it went off \u201cseamlessly and peacefully.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I will not be attending, our administration has been preparing for weeks to ensure the parade is safe for all those who take part,” he said.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish, told reporters she would attend.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the mayor\u2019s decision not to march, and it is my decision to march proudly,\u201d she said as she stood alongside Mamdani at police headquarters. <\/p>\n The mayor’s absence, though long expected, has given fresh fuel to opponents who view his criticism of the Israeli government as antisemitic.<\/p>\n Rabbi Marc Schneier, founding senior rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue on Long Island and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which advocates for better relationships between Jews and Muslims, called Mamdani\u2019s decision to not attend the parade \u201ca slap in the face to all Jewish New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo us a favor, stay home,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t need you. We don\u2019t want you.\u201d<\/p>\n Schneier also slammed Mamdani\u2019s Nakba video as \u201cpropaganda,\u201d echoing concerns from other Jewish leaders who said it excluded context about Jewish peoples\u2019 displacement during the period.<\/p>\n The video, which appeared to be the first such recognition from a sitting New York City mayor, featured the story of a woman who was displaced at 9 years old, interspersed with text about the Nakba, as she described a feeling of missing home, saying \u201cit\u2019s the soft hills of Palestine that actually touched me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived in different places, and I\u2019ve always been an outsider,\u201d said the woman, Inea Bushnaq.<\/p>\n Supporters of Israel were outraged, saying the video should have acknowledged the mass displacement of Jews from Muslim-majority countries or the role that the mass slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust played in the drive to establish a Jewish state.<\/p>\n Mayors in New York City, which has America\u2019s largest Jewish population, have long been visible supporters of Israel, often visiting the country.<\/p>\n