NEW YORK CITY — Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attended the annual Israel Day Parade in New York City, where protesters shouted "shame" and "war criminals" at him during the procession on Fifth Avenue. New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani did not attend the parade.

Israelis for Peace and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice thanked Mamdani for skipping the event via a public statement. Smotrich said, "This is a massive celebration – a profound connection uniting the entire global Jewish community, bringing together Jews in Israel and Jews in the United States. This shared destiny has grown significantly stronger over the past three years."

Smotrich states that he is wanted by the International Criminal Court. He said, "The State of Israel is the home of the entire Jewish people. The security of Jews worldwide relies on the strength and security of the State of Israel. There is no better place to live than in Israel."

Emily Hilton, co-founder of Na'amod, said, "I began to question the acceptance of Zionist thought from university onwards." Hilton joined Jewish activist groups in the UK that held mourning prayers for Palestinians killed during the 2018 Great March of Return on the Gaza border. She added, "Claims that they're acting in my name are, frankly, outrageous. It doesn't matter whether it is the more polite apartheid advocated by Lapid and Bennett or the violence and destruction advocated by the current government, the problem is the system."

She said, "More people are coming to realise that we're right, Israel has lost the moral argument." She also stated, "We need to imagine a life beyond Zionism; one based on justice and equality. The Israeli state is putting Jewish people in danger by claiming that we are somehow its foot soldiers. We're not."

Keith Kahn-Harris, a sociologist and fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, said, "For years, the issue of Israel has been a point of consensus among Jews in the UK and the US. That's becoming less so." Polls in the U.S. and Europe indicate divergent opinions within the Jewish diaspora regarding Israel.