The tension from political strife in the Middle East unfortunately enters into the realm of the Miss Universe Pageant, an event meant to celebrate universal friendship.
Miss Isreal, Doron Matalon, posted an innocent photo on social media of herself along with Miss Lebanon, Miss Slovenia, and Miss Japan. The photo created an uproar due to the tense situation between Israel and their Arab neighbors.
Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige, received much backlash from being seen in a photo with Gatalon including an article with the headline, "Miss Lebanon in Trouble." In response to the conflict, Greige responded by making a formal apology on Facebook to Lebanese citizens. She explained that she resented the fact that Matalon had as she said, "jumped" into the picture and "taken a selfie" of the four of them and then put it on social media. Greige also claimed that she has been very cautious to distance herself from any communication with Miss Isreal during the entirety of the pageant preparations.
In response, Matalon posted on social media although she was not surprised by the situation, it made her sad. Along with the quote, "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 and also from the neighboring country."
This is a circumstance that has regrettably come up in the past during the 2002 Miss Universe pageant, when Miss Lebanon at the time, Christina Sawaya, pulled out of the running because she did not want to share the stage with Miss Isreal during the tensions between the countries that obviously still occur today.
Hopefully in the future the Miss Universe Pageant will not be shown in this light of representing controversy between conflicting countries, but instead representing peace and friendship between all 88 countries that participate.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
