Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said on Friday that Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, who has said he won’t march in the upcoming Israel Day on Fifth parade, essentially “told Jewish New Yorkers to take a hike.”
“For 61 straight years, every mayor of New York City has marched in the annual Israel Day Parade,” Donohue stated.
The Catholic League head noted that Mamdani said at a press conference at New York City Police Department headquarters on Thursday that “my lack of attendance should not be mistaken for a refusal to provide security or the necessary permits for its safety.”
“How magnanimous of him,” Donohue stated. “Had he tried to deny a permit, he would have gotten a licking in court. Ditto had he tried to prohibit a police presence.”
Donohue said he was proud to speak at an anti-Mamdani rally earlier in the week outside Gracie Mansion.
“As for safety concerns, it is ironic that this same man who fought a law providing a buffer zone around houses of worship—he yielded only when the vote was veto-proof—and vetoed a similar law for schools, made sure that on Tuesday the streets near his mansion had a huge buffer zone,” he said. “The police had barricades all over, keeping anti-Mamdani protesters away.”
“Quite frankly, the sight of Mamdani marching in a Jewish parade is on a par with the imperial wizard of the KKK marching in an African American parade,” Donohue stated. “The mind boggles.”
“Mamdani is a particularly lousy fit to march in this year’s Israel Day Parade. Why?” he added. “Because the theme is ‘Proud Americans, Proud Zionists.’ He’s made it abundantly clear that he is not a proud American, and his hatred of Zionists is undeniable.”
Donohue added that Mamdani has refused, for years, to march in the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “He did so reluctantly at the last hour this year,” he said. Mamdani’s prior no-shows are “why many Irish Catholics like me didn’t want him to show up.”
“He proved me right when he hosted a breakfast event on March 17 wherein he took the time not to honor St. Patrick but to condemn what he said was the ‘genocide’ in Palestine,” Donohue stated. “He just can’t get Jew-hatred out of his head.”
“Let’s face it,” he added. “There is no way Mamdani could march in a parade that celebrates Zionism without inflaming his radical Muslim fans.”
