Singapore’s very own beauty queen made it to the semifinals alongside other Asian women at this year’s controversy-clouded Miss Universe contest.
Nandita Banna, 21, today survived among the top 16 contestants at the 70th edition of the pageant that just wrapped up in Eilat, Israel, with the crowning of Miss India Harnaaz Sandhu. But the journey wasn’t all smooth as the event met boycott calls and was called out for appropriating Palestinian culture.
The participants arrived in Israel late last month and have toured sites including a Bedouin settlement where they donned Palestinian clothes and made Palestinian food such as stuffed grape leaves, which they credited to Israeli culture – without ever mentioning Palestine.
Other Asian finalists included Sandhu, Japan’s Juri Watanabe, the Philippines’ Beatrice Gomez and Vietnam’s Nguyen Huynh Kim Duyen. Banna, however, did not make the top 10.
Bedouin are a traditionally nomadic people who are Palestinian citizens of Israel and have been vocal about the discrimination they face in housing and education.
Palestinian advocacy groups have also called on contestants to boycott the event, citing Israeli mistreatment.
“We urge all participants to withdraw, to avoid complicity in Israel’s apartheid regime and its violation of Palestinian human rights,” the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel wrote in October.
Greece’s Rafaela Plastira withdrew from the event, saying she couldn’t ignore the fact that “people are fighting for their lives out there.”
Even though South Africa’s Ministry of Sports, Culture and Arts urged its contestant Lalela Mswane to sit out due to the “atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians,” Mswane went anyway and has now made it to the top three.
Indonesia and Malaysia did not send in contestants due to complications related to the pandemic while the United Arab Emirates blamed “time constraints.”
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