By Ihab Shaarawy
A decision by the Miss Universe organisers to hold the 2021 contest in Israel has left many beauty queens torn between their dreams to ascend the world’s beauty throne and their moral obligations towards respecting human rights and refusing apartheid policies.
The controversy heated up when the South African government withdrew its support for Miss South Africa after the local pageant organiser and the most recent winner, Lalela Mswane, refused to pull out of the competition.
The South African government said it refuses to associate itself with the 70th annual Miss Universe pageant to be held in Eilat, Israel, as the atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians are well documented, Minister of Arts, Sport and Culture Nathi Mthethwa said in a statement.
Mswane even has to respond to the furor of protesters who rallied outside the Miss South Africa offices in Johannesburg to call on the current titleholder to boycott the upcoming Miss Universe contest.
Protesters included members of various political parties and Palestine solidarity organisations who were led by prominent figures including Mandla Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson and a member of the South African parliament, who compared the Israeli occupation to South Africa’s history as an apartheid state.
Miss Universe faced another blow when Rafael Plastire, Greece’s Miss Universe contestant had boycotted the event. Plastire wrote on Instagram: “I am disappointed in Miss Universe for this! It was a childhood dream for me, but I really do not care. I care about my people! Humanity above beauty pageants! “It’s time to make our voices louder than ever!”
Earlier on, Miss Indonesia, Miss Malaysia, Miss Laos have withdrawn from the pageant due to what they said are the Covid-19 pandemic conditions.
Despite a warning by the reigning winner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, Andrea Meza, that the next edition of the competition set to be held in Israel shouldn’t be politicised, she said that she wouldn’t fault women who boycotted this year’s pageant.
The fuss about the Israeli pageant can illustrate how the cultural boycott of Israel continues to gain steam and brings to mind other successes that were achieved in this regard by the BDS movement, which promotes boycotts, divestment, and sanctions of Israel.
The movement which sees a direct correlation between the Apartheid South African and the Israeli cultural boycotts, has recently succeeded with some singers like Lorde and Lana Del Rey who cancelled shows in the country. Meanwhile, while Irish author Sally Rooney declined to have her most recent book translated into Hebrew until she found a publisher complaint with BDS’ “institutional boycott guidelines.”
The BDS may find no difficulty to propagate Israeli apartheid policies as the same belief about Israeli policies is shared by several human rights organisations such as the New York-based Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, which separately said that Israeli policies in the occupied territories amount to apartheid, drawing comparisons with the brutal system of racial discrimination in South Africa that ended in 1994.
The cultural boycott of Israel remains as one of the most effective tools of the BDS not only because of the wide media coverage it normally enjoys but also because it strips the Israeli government of chances to instrumentalise culture to cover up its grave violations of international law.
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