The gay pride parade originally scheduled for 5:00 p.m. this afternoon (Thursday) in Be'er Sheva has now been cancelled after controversy involving the police and the Supreme Court.

Police in the southern city had decided not to allow the parade to go through the main streets in the city, offering an alternative route through side-roads. The organizers of the event petitioned the Supreme Court to overrule the police's decision, but the petition was rejected.

The Court offered still another alternative route, through somewhat busier and more central roads, in an effort to find a workable compromise. Parade organizers, representing the "Pride House" of Be'er Sheva, rejected the plan and cancelled the parade.

In place of the parade, a protest will take place in front of the Be'er Sheva municipality, with organizers calling on the "Pride House" Facebook page for "a continued fight, with no compromises" against what they see as "legal institutions' capitulation to threats" in upholding the police's decision.