BDS Activists Urge Miss South Africa Not to Compete in 'Apartheid State' Israel

By Michael W. Chapman | November 12, 2021 | 10:33am EST

Miss South Africa 2021, Lalela Mswane. (misssa.co.za)

Supporters of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement are calling on Miss South Africa, Lalela Mswane, to not compete in the 2021 Miss Universe pageant, being held in Eilat, Israel because, they charge, Israel is an "apartheid state."

Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, congratulated Mswane for winning the Miss South Africa contest, but said of the pageant to be held in Israel on Dec. 12, "We call on our newly crowned and all former Miss South Africa to boycott that event in protest at the occupation and the cruel treatment of Palestinians at the hands of Apartheid Israel regime."

"We call on Miss South Africa and the nation as a whole to boycott and withdraw all support for the Miss Universe pageant in Apartheid Israel," said Mandela, as reported by All News Nigeria. "There is nothing beautiful about occupation, brutality and institutionalised discrimination against the Palestinian people."

"Now we reiterate our call to boycott, divest and pass sanctions campaign Apartheid Israel," he said. "We must not support or legitimise the victimisation of our Palestinian brothers and sisters."

The BDS movement "works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law," according to its website. During the Trump administration, BDS was declared "anti-Semitic," a position that many Jewish groups support.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), for instance, says BDS is not about "fairness," but all "about destroying Israel. Economic warfare against the Jewish community is the oldest trick in the Anti-Semite’s playbook, and the Jewish community in particular owes the [Trump] Administration our enduring thanks.”

(Getty Images)

As for Miss South Africa, Lalela Mswane, she apparently has no intention of submitting to the protests and is scheduled to participate in the Miss Universe pageant in Israel.

Stephanie Weil, chief executive of the Miss South Africa organization, told the Jewish Chronicle (JC), “We were always going to take part in Miss Universe, and the information that it was happening in Israel has been out for months already.”

For Mswane, said Weil, “going to Miss Universe is an opportunity to represent her country on the world stage, not about where [the contest] was being held."

Miss Universe 2020, Andrea Meza of Mexico. (Getty Images)

“Things have got to a point where it is quite literally harassment against Lalela," Weil told the JC. "I think she’s incredibly scared of the threats that people are making against her, versus feeling supported, which at the end of the day she should feel."

“We will stand by her whatever she chooses to do," said Weil. "She is an incredibly strong woman. At the moment, we are going to Israel. I do believe that her intention is to go and compete. I think that this is a moment in her life that she would not want to give up.”

Miss South Africa 2021.

Wendy Kahn, the National Director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, said the BDS protesters have conducted a “relentless … campaign [against Mswane] for declining to buckle down to their demand that she withdraw from the upcoming Miss Universe pageant in Eilat."

They are engaging in “aggressive, in-your-face-bullying and harassment," she told the JC.

h/t The JC

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/bds-activists-urge-miss-south-africa-not-compete-apartheid-state-israel