Gideon Levy’s latest op-ed in Haaretz הארץ:

 Gideon Levy’s latest op-ed in Haaretz הארץ:

May 24 2026

“Why Does New York's Walk of Shame Still Salute Israel in 2026?

Whom are you saluting?

How can you continue parading as if nothing happened, as if Israel has not committed crimes, as if it hasn't turned into a pariah state across the world and only in New York you march, waving its flag?

Are you not ashamed?

For 62 years, the city of New York has been saluting Israel every spring. It began with a youth parade, continuing with David Ben-Gurion walking down Fifth Avenue to the applause of bystanders, becoming an annual parade of support, the largest display of sympathy for Israel in the largest Jewish city in the world, with all the Yiddishkeit of American, Zionist and Israeli functionaries.

Next Sunday, they'll be marching again, loudly cheering Israel, as usual. But the organizers are worried. This year, there will be fewer participants. They already have an explanation: It's because of the fear of antisemitism.

What a joke.

There could be no greater proof of their obtuseness. If fewer people march this year, it will be because very many people, including members of New York's Jewish community, are no longer capable of saluting Israel. Not this Israel.

There is also no better proof of the blindness and of the automatic nature of the support of Israel among the Jewish Zionist establishment than these parades. This cloying sycophantic parade will take place this year as well; even this year.

The storm will rage around us and the genocide too and they'll salute Israel.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said that he will boycott the parade. Boom. This will be the first in the history of these parades in which the mayor is absent. Jewish and Israeli functionaries have already started their usual cries, accusing the mayor of antisemitism and hatred of Israel.

But this year, more than in any other, one should direct questions to people who still take part.

Why are you marching? Whom are you saluting? Whom are you embracing? Do you seriously believe that Israel in 2026 deserves a parade expressing support in the streets of your city? What for, exactly?

The Israel you salute next week is unworthy of this. It is simultaneously involved in several wars of choice, all of them unnecessary, some of them tainted with war crimes and crimes against humanity, with Israel wanting them continuing endlessly, in contrast even to the position of the U.S.

What is there to salute?

A state that has killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza while razing their lands?

A state that has displaced millions of people across the Middle East, rendering them homeless with no remaining possessions? A state that has made tens of thousands of children disabled or orphans?

A country that cruelly abuses thousands of Palestinian detainees as well as hundreds of conscientious people who try to reach Gaza by sea? A state that is now also destroying southern Lebanon?

Welcome, dear marchers, the delegation of ministers coming to your march on behalf of Israel's government. Ministers Ofir Sofer, Yitzhak Wasserlauf and Amichay Eliyahu.

Two of them belong to Bezalel Smotrich's party and the third to the party of Itamar Ben-Gvir, competing over who is more racist and who more messianic. It's them you'll be saluting. It's their Israel you'll be singing for.

One of them, Eliyahu, has said that "the government is moving at full speed toward the total obliteration of Gaza. Praise be to God that we are effacing this evil. All of Gaza will be Jewish."

Salute Eliyahu and you're saluting explicit and declared genocide.

And after all this, you're complaining that a human rights supporter like Mamdani is boycotting your revolting event?

There is no conscientious person in the world who cannot but boycott such an event these days. Much water has flowed in the Hudson since Ben-Gurion marched in this parade, as well as much innocent blood in the Middle East.

Holding the parade this year is spitting in the face of most Americans, who are repulsed by Israel; it is a thumbing of one's nose at international law and at moral values, ignoring the fate of two million Gazans who are living for the third year in tents, with no electricity or running water, with no present or future, with nothing to their name.

A solidarity parade in New York?

Now is the time for a solidarity parade in support of the oppressed people in Gaza, not with their oppressors.”