NYPD is on high alert for potential attacks on Israel Day parade Sunday
NEW YORK — The NYPD is on high alert for Sunday’s Israel Day on Fifth parade in Manhattan, warning that “extremists across the ideological spectrum and other grievance-driven malicious actors” may look to strike the high-profile event, according to a police department threat assessment.
There will be extra security measures in place due to the war in Gaza, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists against Israel, but Police Commissioenr Edward Caban said “there is no specific or credible threat to the parade or New York City in general.”
Still, protective fencing is being installed along the parade’s route from E. 56th to E. 74th streets on Fifth Ave., and drones will be used to watch for the potential onrush of troublemakers or protesters who don’t plan to demonstrate peacefully.
Mark Treyger, head of the Jewish Relations Council of New York, said Sunday’s parade is “the most consequential in his lifetime” and that he expects more than 200 different groups to take part.
Still, he acknowledged that the spike in antisemitic hate crimes in the city —154 this year through May 26, up 60% from 96 at the same time last year — could scare off those who have attended past parades.
“My message to them is your love and support is demonstrated in many ways,” he said. “It is through their prayers, it is through showing up to their synagogues and it is expressed through their Jewish heritage as they walk through the streets of New York.”
On Wednesday morning a cabbie passing a yeshiva in East Flatbush, Brooklyn verbally assaulted a group of Jewish people before driving up on the sidewalk and trying to run them down, police said.
The 58-year-old suspect was arrested but on hate crime charges but police said there is no connection to the parade.
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