A photo of Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon has caused controversy during this year’s Miss Universe contest.
Beauty contestants are renowned for posting photos upon photos of themselves on social media. They are also renowned for wanting “world peace”.
But there’s a beauty contestant selfie that has been circling the internet this week for all the wrong reasons. And it has entire countries up in arms.
This is the offending image:
The image has been causing quite in international circles because apparently Miss Lebanon should not be seen in a photo with Miss Israel.
Ever.
As soon as the image was posted, Miss Lebanon came under attack from the Lebanese media. The two countries are at odds, so the reasoning goes that the girls should hate each other too.
In order to deflect criticism, Miss Lebanon is now claiming that Miss Israel photobombed her picture.
And she has been on the front foot in making it clear that she has not been hanging out with Miss Israel.
Miss Lebanon reposted selfie but this time with Miss Israel cropped out.
The image was accompanied with text that says, “The truth behind the photo: Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel.”
If you can’t read the full text, it says:
To all my supporters and Lebanese citizens, I would like to thank you indeed for your continuous support of Miss Lebanon at the Miss Universe contest …The truth behind the photo: Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me) … I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media…this is what happened and I hope to have your full support in the Miss Universe contest.
But Miss Israel is not having any of that.
She responded to the backlash and outrage with this image:
Her response says, “It doesn’t surprise me, but it still makes me sad. Too bad you can not put the hostility out of the game, only for three weeks of an experience of a lifetime that we can meet girls from around the world.”
The home-grown porn star who is dividing Lebanon.
It seems that the UN has nothing on the Miss World Pageant when it comes to political drama and intrigue.
What do you think of the online backlash over this photo?
Top Comments
From the Lebanese perspective Miss Israel is the representative of a country that invaded it, took over the capital, occupied a big chunk of it and wasn't particularly gentle in the way it treated the locals, took sides in and fuelled quite a bitter civil war and strikes into Lebanon whenever it feels like it (and from the Israeli side Lebanon is a dysfunctional failed state that can't stop terrorists from striking into Israel or stockpiling weapons for the next attack). The dislike in Lebanon towards Israel makes it impossible that Miss Lebanon could be anything except publicly hostile towards Miss Israel.
Because they are women and because they are women and because of the culture of their countries,they will face a lot of criticism when they get back.Wars achieve nothing other than lining the pockets of munitions companys