Miss Universe 2022, a communication operation for Israel

Sunbathing by a turquoise swimming pool, photo shoot in the ocher rocky desert and scuba diving to see the corals … Since their arrival a week ago in Eilat, on the shores of the Red Sea, for the he election of Miss Universe, the Miss promote the Israeli dolce vita: 29 degrees in the shade… Sunday evening, December 12, it will be a question of succeeding Miss Mexico.

In the meantime, on television, we see them delighted, like Miss Japan: “I think what I liked the most here were the people. We received a very warm welcome and I really liked the family values ​​here.” Israel, on the strength of a very effective recall campaign against the Covid since August, wanted to make this competition the showcase for its reopening to tourists after a year and a half of closing its borders. But the emergence of the Omicron variant has forced the country to close again.

Miss Universe 2021 in Eilat, like Eurovision in 2019 in Tel Aviv, still remains a great communication operation for Israel. And the well-photographed visit of the Misses in the old city of Jerusalem, considered as occupied territory according to international law, or their dances in Palestinian uniforms infuriated the associations for the defense of the Palestinians who denounce a “cultural appropriation”.

Miss Kenya allowed herself a slightly engaged speech: “I believe that there have to be more people who come to Israel to discover the country because it is the cradle of Jewish but also Muslim and Christian history.”

Sunday evening, on stage Miss Morocco and Miss Bahrain will symbolize the mutual recognition between these two Arab countries and Israel, a year ago. Israeli authorities estimate that 600 million viewers will follow the competition on television. For France, it is Clémence Botino, Miss Guadeloupe 2019 then Miss France 2020, who will parade on Sunday evening. Diagnosed positive for Covid when she arrived in Israel, she had to undergo several days of quarantine.