Yesha Council joins anti-gay parade protest

As the date of Jerusalem’s gay pride parade approaches, the voices of the two camps, those opposing and those in favor of the event, are gaining momentum. On Wednesday Labor’s youth league joined the pro-parade camp, while the Yesha Council took up a position against it.

The organization is planning to distribute flyers in synagogues across the country calling for active protest of the parade.

“The parade demonstrates the ‘earthquake’ that is shaking the country’s foundations. Just as we are tasked with advancing the settlement enterprise it is our duty to protest against this abomination,” the flyer reads.

It continues: "Israel is not something corporeal; our hold on it is not just by military action or settling the land, it is first and foremost spiritual… after the abomination in Egypt and the land of Canaan there is also this equation, tying the moral values of the Israeli people to their right to live in the country.

"This march defies that equation. Those who publicly wreak havoc on the moral decrees written down for us in the bible, guidelines that were universal until this last generation, damage the Israeli people's connection to the land of Israel. This arrogant march, which demeans Israeli moral values as it demeans Israel's capital, the holy city and the temple, should rile every Jew."

The decision to take resolute action against the parade was made on Tuesday by the Yesha council against the backdrop of what was defined as "immense public pressure to fight this offense on Israeli values."

The struggle against the parade has long since expanded beyond the haredi arena and is now being championed by the religious Zionist movement, the Yesha council, the religious educational forum, the Bnei Akiva youth movement and more.

There are already those who seek to draw parallels between this fight and the evacuation of the Gaza settlements. Senior officials within the Yesha council told Ynet that tens of thousands were expected to attend to the anti-pride rally on the day of the parade, perhaps even hundreds of thousands.

So how will it 'go down'? The protests will centralize at two points, a massive prayer will be held along Jaffa St., from Zion Square all the way to the Davidka (for the men) while the women will hold their corresponding prayer along Ben-Yehuda St. The central stage will be at Zion Square. Yesha council officials, who have already been in contact with the police to inform them of the plan, wish to clarify however that: "We are not going to resort to violence."