AS: Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima), who is responsible for the police, is expected to convene a meeting with top police officials and decide on the parade’s future. Police sources confirmed to Ynet that no decision has yet been made, but it appears that the march will be relocated to Tel Aviv.The coalition of opposition to the march comprises Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders, but it appears that only Jewish opposition will remain if it is held in Tel Aviv. Many Jewish leaders have said that though Jerusalem is the Holy City, Tel Aviv is part of the Holy Land and therefore such a parade may not be held anywhere in its borders.
The police say that at issue are the security considerations, in light of the immense size of the parade, the many hundreds of thousands who say they will come out to protest it, and the accompanying threats of violence. At a smaller gay parade in Jerusalem last year, three homosexuals were stabbed by a Jewish protestor.
Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas Party, had very harsh words in his weekly sermon last night: “G-d preserves His people in the merit of [their] modesty, holiness and purity… The Torah commands not to commit the abominations of the Canaanites – such as men marrying men, women marrying women… They were evil people, abominable… They bring these evil people from all over the world to Jerusalem to defile it. All of us as one, we will all protest this with all our might. On the day they have it – we will make a demonstration, and everyone will be there…”

Others who openly oppose the parade include Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger, Rabbo Shalom Yosef Elyashiv, the vast majority of the Jerusalem City Council, dozens of Knesset Members, and many more. Rabbi Amar wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, asking him to help thwart the event, in the “hope that the combination of religious leaders’ protests will prevent the evil schemers from.. destroying the ways of mankind.”