Franco permits Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem

Jerusalem District Chief Cmdr. Ilan Franco authorized Thursday in principle the execution of the Gay Pride parade in the capital city on June 21. The parade was originally scheduled to take place last summer, but was canceled several times. It was first pushed off to November due to the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War in July. Then, because of to the overwhelming threat of violence from anti-gay protesters, the event was reworked into a rally that was confined to the Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus.