Several prominent New York Democrats who participated in the city's annual Israel Day parade on Sunday have condemned the attendance of Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister and a leading figure in the Israeli settler movement. Smotrich was among several Israeli lawmakers and cabinet officials who marched in the parade, marking his first trip to the US in over a year.
In the aftermath of the event, high-profile attendees released statements distancing themselves from Smotrich, saying they were unaware he would be present. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called Smotrich a 'far-right extremist whose hateful and divisive rhetoric is fundamentally at odds with the values we hold dear in New York.' Attorney General Letitia James also criticised Smotrich, writing that 'Islamophobia has no place in New York.'
Questions emerged about how Smotrich came to attend. Mark Treyger, chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC-NY), the parade's lead organiser, told the New York Times that they did not know Smotrich and other far-right Israeli officials were attending. Treyger said they appeared to have been brought by Israel's consulate general in New York, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Dan Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel, condemned Smotrich's appearance, saying he 'crashed' the parade. 'His extremist views do harm to the US-Israel relationship,' Shapiro wrote. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who declined to attend the parade, said he was 'offended' by Smotrich's participation, calling it 'a vision of annihilation, a complicity in genocide.'
