Gaza pullout postpones J'lem gay parade

Facing a likely police veto, the heads of Jerusalem's Gay and Lesbian community announced Thursday that they agreed to postpone a controversial international gay parade which was slated to take place in Jerusalem this summer due to Israel's planned concomitant withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

"The homo-lesbian community in Israel is not oblivious to what is going on in the country and to the major public event that the Gaza pullout will be," said Hagai El-Ad, the executive-director of Jerusalem's Gay and Lesbian center which was planning on hosting the event.

The decision by local organizers to postpone the ten day event if the Gaza withdrawal goes ahead as scheduled represents a dramatic about-face for the group, which had previously refused to even discuss the possibility of a postponement amidst rising public opposition to the parade over the last couple months. The move was seen as a face-saving measure in light of police opposition to issuing a permit for a major event that coincided with the planned pullout from Gaza.

Police were planning to ask organizers to postpone the event since their forces will be overburdened with the concomitant withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, officials said, although El-Ad noted that such a request had not been received to date.

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