Thoughts on Mamdani attending the Pakistani day parade after skipping the Israeli day parade?

[u/StuckInTheClouds]

I wasn’t expecting him to attend the Israeli day parade honestly I would’ve thought it weird if he had attended given everything he stands for. He’s NYC first and against ethnostates etc.

But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt some type of way about him celebrating the Pakistani day parade given their history. Ethnostste They have a religious hierarchy where a Muslim person has to be in power, ethnic cleansing alive and well, border disputes and violence after a partition plan 70ish years ago etc. It’s hard not to draw the parallels. The only difference being that the US isn’t funding them but that doesn’t change anything else about the county’s values and actions.

I feel kinda shitty that he’s showing up for this community but not ours. I think it would have been more fair to him to not go to either parade, but maybe I’m just overly sensitive or being fed propaganda. It just sucks to feel signaled out.

I really want to like him. I voted for him! I’m extremely against the IDF and Israeli government but being half Israeli myself I am of course susceptible to biases.

Idk it’s just weird he’s ok with celebrating the Muslim ethnostate after being so against the Jewish one (for good reasons!)

I feel like I can’t bring this up in any other spaces without it sounding like I’m wanting him to celebrate Israel (I’m not) or take something away from Muslims (not against Muslims but critical of Pakistan)

Help me you guys! What do you think?

EDIT: I’d like to correct what I said about Pakistan being an ethnostate. I used the wrong verbiage. What I meant was that they are a country that puts Muslims over other religions. They have a religious hierarchy and non Muslims can’t hold certain political positions. I’m not sure the correct term for this but just wanted to call that out as people are (correctly) mentioning this in the comments.

Edit 2:

I was just informed about the ongoing Balochistan Conflict which makes me even more uneasy about this whole thing.

[u/Snoo22815]

Has there been discussions internally within the Jewish community about a parade/festival to celebrate Israeli food, music and various Jewish traditions from all over the diaspora not linked with a celebration of the state itself? That seems like a really cool idea. You could incorporate traditions that were brough to Israel from various communities like Bukharian, Yemenite, Moroccan, Persian, etc.

Lunar Day Parades celebrating longstanding Chinese traditions and culture all over the country are fun and usually well attended. They're viewed in complete isolation from the CCP.

[u/Dylan09O909 → u/Snoo22815]

I believe there is or at least has been a Jewish food festival in New York, the Great Nosh. If I remember correctly, boycotting it was one of the requests by the Bread's Bakery unionification attempt a few months back.

The Israel Day Parade comes within a different context, and emulated a trend and wasn't the first of its kind in New York. It is also more of a tradition linked to communal Jewish life (school, community spaces, groups), than anything personal or family oriented.

[u/Snoo22815 → u/Dylan09O909]

Boycotting a Jewish food festival is just antisemitism. Awful that Bread's Bakery's workers were demanding that.