EFF calls for boycotting Israel-hosted Miss Universe pageant, specifying call for Miss SA

Cape Town (QNN)- The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a South African political party, has joined the calls for boycotting Miss Universe pageant which will be held next month in ‘Eilat’, an Israeli-occupied Palestinian city built on the ruins of ethnically cleansed village, specifying its call for Miss South Africa.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the EFF said it “joins all South Africans and progressive peoples of the world in their call for
the boycott of the Miss Universe pageant taking place in Israel.”

The EFF said it is specifically calling Miss South Africa, Lalela Mswane, to reject and condemn the participating in the Miss Universe Pageant “taking place in Israel which is an apartheid, genocidal and criminal state.”

“Apartheid is by definition a crime against humanity. The state of Israel is engaged, for
over 50 years now, in a policy of racial segregation, ethnic cleansing and colonial land
occupation and dispossession against the people of Palestine,” the EFF said in the statement.

EFF added, “Israel has violated international law barring it from its colonial and racist occupation of Palestine with impunity. This policy has led to the dispossession of homes from Palestinians, turning Palestinians into the largest forced immigrant population in the world.”

“No South African whose liberation came through the international boycott of Afrikaner
apartheid by people’s of the world should ever negotiate boycotting Israel,” the EFF stressed.

“No South African should ever arrogate themselves the responsibility of understanding,
negotiating or reconciling Palestinians with their oppressor, Israel.”

“Our duty is to isolate Israel from all cultural, sports, religious and economic activities until they end their apartheid and colonial occupation of Palestinian peoples and lands.”

The EFF pointed out that Miss Universe cannot be “crowned in a country that engages in the obliteration of other people’s beauty, humanity and being on a daily basis.”

“Before Israel can hots our queens, it must bestow on Palestine it’s beauty by ending its criminal occupation, racial segregation and ethnic cleansing,” the EFF said while calling Mswane “to stand with the oppressed, let the beauty of Palestine and Palestinians come first. Let it be affirmed through a complete boycott of their oppressor: Apartheid Israel.”

The EFF, as it defined itself, is a radical and militant economic emancipation movement, formed in the year 2013 with the aim of bringing together revolutionary, militant activists, community-based organizations as well as lobby groups under the umbrella of the political party pursuing the struggle of economic emancipation.

Pro-Palestine advocates have been calling to boycott the Miss Universe competition as it will be held this December in Eilat, an Israeli-occupied Palestinian city, which was built in 1952 on the Palestinian southernmost city of Umm al-Rashrash.

In March 1949, Ben Gurion, Israeli Prime Minister at the time, instructed the Israeli occupation forces to make it a fact that ‘Israel’ is the rightful owner of the Negev (and of course, Umm Rash-Rash, which is situated in the Negev’s most northern spot).

The IOF started “Operation Uvda” (in Hebrew, “Uvda” means “Fact”), led by then-Israeli Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, started their way down to conquer Umm Rash-Rash, destroyed the citizens’ houses and raised the Israeli flag before the city’s police station.

So, the advocates have slammed the Miss Universe Organization for such a decision, saying such events are used to divert attention from Israel’s many human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Lately, miss South Africa has also been facing criticism by anti-apartheid activists and organizations over her announcement that she will take part in the Miss Universe Pageant.

As the international pageant is set to take place in the occupation state of Israel, people were questioning Mswane’s decision to attend.

The criticism largely comes from South Africa’s history with apartheid and colonialism, which is very similar to Palestine’s history and current situation. It also comes following Human Rights Watch’s coining of ‘Israel’ as an apartheid state.

Mandla Mandela, the grandson of South Africa’s leader Nelson Mandela, had called on African countries to boycott the Miss Universe competition, which will be held in the occupation state.

He also called on Mswane, as well as all former Miss South Africa winners, to boycott that event in protest at the “occupation and the cruel treatment of Palestinians at the hands of apartheid Israel regime”.

“There is nothing beautiful about occupation, brutality and institutionalised discrimination against the Palestinian people,” said Mandela.

Mandela further said the harassment of Palestinians should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and that Israel’s occupation was no less despicable than apartheid in South Africa.