New Delhi, June 1 -- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani skipped the annual parade honoring Israel on 31 May, breaking away from a decades-long political custom because of his support for Palestinian rights.

Despite being known by different names over the years, the Israel Day parade has consistently drawn mayors, governors, and other political figures keen to connect with the large crowds of flag-waving participants who gather along Fifth Avenue to mark the establishment of Israel in 1948.

However, that's not the case for Mamdani. Two weeks ago, the mayor's office released a video commemorating the Nakba, an Arabic word for "catastrophe" that is used to describe the displacement of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-...