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NYPD flooding Israel Day Parade with cops amid rising antisemitic tensions in NYC

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on

Published in News & Features

NEW YORK — The NYPD is deploying the “largest number of officers ever assigned” to the Israel Day Parade this Sunday amid rising antisemitic tensions in New York City, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday.

Standing with Mayor Zohran Mamdani at NYPD headquarters in lower Manhattan, Tisch said there are no credible threats to the parade. But in light of the heightened threat environment against Jews in the city and worldwide, this year’s celebration will have more police resources than ever before.

“In that threat environment, to be blunt, we are not messing around with security for this year’s parade,” said Tisch, who will be an honorary grand marshal at the parade. “This will be the most extensive security plans the NYPD has ever put together for this parade.”

Mamdani will not be attending the parade because of his opposition to the Israeli government. He will be the first New York City Mayor not to attend since the first parade in 1964.

Tisch, who is Jewish, said that she will be “marching proudly” in the parade, which will extend up Fifth Ave. from 62nd St. to 74th St. beginning at 11:30 a.m.

The Israel Day Parade is the largest parade of its kind outside of Israel.

Heightened NYPD security procedures will include augmented camera coverage and “comprehensive screening for everyone entering the parade route,” Tisch said.

Anyone who plans to disrupt the parade or skip screenings will be immediately arrested, Tisch vowed, adding that journalists will also be screened before they are allowed onto the parade route.

“If you think you are too important to be screened, don’t come,” she said, adding that revelers won’t be able to bring in large bags, backpacks, coolers or “anything that can obstruct another spectator’s view.”

 

The department will be utilizing drones, mounted units, sanitation trucks and other blocker vehicles on the side streets leading to the parade route to prevent anyone from driving into revelers.

Tisch and Mamdani said that preparation for the parade has taken weeks to put together.

The parade also comes just two weeks after the feds and the NYPD arrested an Iraqi national accused of plotting to attack a New York City synagogue during the Jewish festival of Passover.

Antisemitic incidents in the city have increased since the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and “have led to dozens of attacks across the U.S.,” Tisch said.

“That has only increased in the wake of hostilities with Iran,” she said. “In this environment, the absence of a specific threat does not mean an absence of risk.”

While Mamdani won’t be attending the parade, he has made sure the NYPD has all the resources it needed to protect the event, he said.

“I take seriously my responsibility to the safety and well being of every New Yorker at every event, regardless of my feelings,” he said.

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©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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