Jewish diaspora critics challenge Israel parade message in New York
Progressive Jewish groups in the US and UK say Israel’s leaders are using Jewish identity to defend the war in Gaza and the occupation.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Progressive Jewish critics of Israel used New York’s Israel Day Parade to challenge the claim that Israel’s government speaks for Jews worldwide. The dispute matters because Israeli leaders and many US institutions continue to frame Israel’s security as inseparable from Jewish identity, while some diaspora groups say that argument is losing force.
Al Jazeera reported that Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other far-right Israeli lawmakers attended the annual Israel Day on Fifth parade in June. Smotrich, who has said the International Criminal Court is seeking his arrest, was met by protesters shouting “shame” and “war criminals,” according to the report.
Smotrich told parade supporters that Israel and the wider Jewish community share a common fate. He said Israel is “the home of the entire Jewish people” and argued that the safety of Jews globally depends on Israel’s strength.
New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani skipped the parade, fulfilling a campaign promise, Al Jazeera reported. Israelis for Peace and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice welcomed the decision, saying the event included Israeli politicians who supported what the groups called genocide against Palestinians.
Jewish groups contest Israel’s claim to represent them
Activists in Jewish Voice for Peace in the United States and Na’amod in the United Kingdom told Al Jazeera that they reject efforts by Israeli politicians to invoke Jews abroad in defense of Israel’s war in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank. They said Israel’s treatment of Palestinians conflicts with the democratic values Israel says it represents.
Emily Hilton, a co-founder of Na’amod, told Al Jazeera that her views shifted after Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, citing the killing of four Palestinian children on a beach. She said she later met Jews and Palestinians at University College London who were critical of Israel and Zionism.
Hilton said she joined Jewish groups in Britain that recited traditional mourning prayers for Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during the 2018 Great March of Return protests at the Gaza border. She also joined a vigil after the Hamas-led attack on October 7.
Al Jazeera reported that Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians. Hilton told the outlet that more Jews are questioning Israel’s moral standing and said claims that Israel acts in her name are “outrageous.”
Polling points to divisions
Polls in the US and Europe show mixed views among Jewish communities toward Israel, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet reported that some Jews in the US and UK have felt a stronger emotional connection to Israel after international condemnation of the war in Gaza, while others have moved further away from the country.
Sonya Meyerson-Knox, communications director of Jewish Voice for Peace, told Al Jazeera that major American Jewish institutions have long supported Israeli government actions and presented them as being carried out for Jews everywhere. She said those institutions also excluded Jews who opposed Israel’s occupation, apartheid and alleged war crimes.
Keith Kahn-Harris, a sociologist and fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, told Al Jazeera that support for Israel has been a broad consensus among Jews in the US and UK for years, but that consensus is weakening. He said anti-Zionist views are growing among younger Jews, though mainstream Jewish communities have not broadly reached the point of questioning Israel’s future as a state.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.