AMMWEC to protest against NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdanion 26th May 2026

NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has issued a blistering condemnation of his successor, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, after Mamdani confirmed he will skip the annual Israel Day Parade — becoming the first sitting New York City mayor in the event’s 62-year history to do so. Giuliani described the decision as an act of contempt toward the Jewish community and a symptom of a far broader and more dangerous agenda.

“Mamdani’s decision to snub the Israel Day Parade demonstrates his deep disdain and hatred of the Jewish community,” Giuliani told the New York Post on Wednesday. The former mayor, who served New York City from 1994 through 2001, drew a direct line between the parade snub and Mamdani’s earlier absence from the investiture of the new Catholic Archbishop Ronald Hicks, warning that the pattern of behavior reveals something far more troubling than mere political difference.

Giuliani went further, questioning whether New Yorkers have begun to reckon with the consequences of their electoral decision in November 2025. “Have New Yorkers awakened to the fact that they made a disastrous decision in November 2025 by electing this man?” he asked pointedly.

A Historic First — and a Historic Snub

The Israel Day Parade, held annually along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue since 1964, has been attended by every single sitting New York City mayor in its history — until now. This year’s parade is scheduled for May 31 under the theme “Proud Americans, Proud Zionists.”

Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and avowed anti-Zionist, had first signaled in October 2025 — the month before his election — that he would not attend the parade. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time that he looked forward to “joining — and hosting — many community events celebrating Jewish life in New York,” but pointedly excluded the parade from that commitment.

Critics have not accepted that framing. As a prominent supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and as a politician who has refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Mamdani’s parade absence has been widely interpreted as a deliberate ideological statement — not a neutral act of omission.

“An Affront to the History of New York City”

Former Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration created the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism — a body that Mamdani has not disbanded but whose work contrasts sharply with his own posture toward Israel — also weighed in.

Nakba Day, Jewish Heritage Month, and a Widening Rift

The parade controversy is the latest flashpoint in a deepening rift between Mamdani’s administration and New York’s Jewish community. Last week, Mamdani posted a video on social media in honor of “Nakba Day” — the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” used by Palestinians to describe Israel’s founding and the displacement of Arabs during the 1948 War of Independence.

Several pro-Israel Jewish groups found the video deeply offensive. As a result, major Jewish organizations — including the UJA Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, both of which are co-organizing this year’s Israel Day Parade — declined to attend a pre-Shavuot event Mamdani hosted at Gracie Mansion in honor of Jewish Heritage Month. They explained to the New York Post that they would not attend an event hosted by a mayor who “denies the core pillar of our heritage, the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.”

At the Gracie Mansion event, Mamdani announced that his administration would allocate $26 million annually to expand efforts by the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. The announcement did little to mollify critics, who noted that since Mamdani assumed office, Jews have continued to represent the majority of all hate crime victims in New York City.

A City at a Crossroads

The Israel Day Parade has long been more than a celebration — it is a statement of civic identity, a declaration that New York City’s deep bonds with the Jewish community and the State of Israel are part of what makes the city great. That a sitting mayor has broken a 62-year tradition of mayoral attendance — while Muslim groups march where he will not — is a moment that New Yorkers of all faiths are watching closely.

The parade takes place on May 31. Its theme this year: “Proud Americans, Proud Zionists.”

Faith & Freedom News commends AMMWEC, Abraham PRC, GYUP, the Muslim Women Speakers Bureau, and Muslims Israel Dialogue for their historic participation and will continue to report on the Israel Day Parade and the broader fight against antisemitism in New York and across the United States.