{"id":91646,"date":"2021-12-14T17:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=91646"},"modified":"2021-12-14T13:19:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T11:19:01","slug":"20-00-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=91646","title":{"rendered":"Miss South Africa Places Third in Eilat Miss Universe Pageant After Rejecting Pressure at Home to Boycott Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Miss South Africa Places Third in Eilat Miss Universe Pageant After Rejecting Pressure at Home to Boycott Israel<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lalela Mswane, Miss South Africa 2021, is announced as a Top 3 finalist during the 70th Miss Universe Competition\u00ae on December 12, 2021 at the Universe Arena in Eilat, Israel. Photo: Tracy Nguyen\/Miss Universe.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane was the second-runner up in the 70th Miss Universe pageant that aired live from Eilat, Israel, on Sunday, after facing weeks of pressure in her home country to skip the contest held in the Jewish state.<\/span><\/p>\n

The South African government\u00a0announced<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in November that it would not back the 24-year-old\u2019s participation in the pageant, as a show of support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Her success in the competition was also in defiance of calls on\u00a0social media<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to boycott the Dec. 12 pageant, which used hashtags including \u201c#NotMyMissSouthAfrica.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mswane \u2014 \u00a0a law school graduate, model and dancer \u2014\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>on Thursday night, in between rehearsals for the pageant, \u201cMy soul would not have been at peace if I skipped it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had not come to Israel to compete in the Miss Universe pageant, I think I would have regretted it for the rest of my life,\u201d Mswane told the\u00a0Jerusalem Post<\/em>. \u201cI always thought South Africa has the friendliest people on earth but it might be rivaled by Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mswane embodied a\u00a0\u201cDove of Peace<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in the pageant\u2019s national costume competition on Friday night. Asked as her final question in Sunday\u2019s competition for advice to young women facing pressure in life, she\u00a0replied<\/a>,<\/strong><\/span> \u201cI would implore young women today to choose courage over comfort every opportunity that they get. I\u2019d also like young women to know that since the beginning of time they have anything, everything rather, within them to achieve anything they\u2019ve wanted. It was unfortunately the world that convinced us that we do not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jewish groups in South Africa applauded Mswane for placing third in the international competition, with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies calling her a \u201cremarkable woman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLalela you made us so proud. What an achievement,\u201d the group\u00a0said<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. \u201cWe will remember your insightful words in response to your final question, \u2018Choose courage over comfort.\u2019 This you embody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The South African Zionist Federation\u00a0added<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>in a Facebook post, \u201cCongratulations to Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane who refused to listen to BDS and anti-Israel voices who bullied and pressured her. Lalela your stand for peace has not gone unappreciated and unnoticed! Thank you for being a wonderful example and representative of South Africa!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou stood up for what you believed in and rejected the hate of #BDS,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0the organization\u00a0South African Friends of Israel.<\/span>\u00a0\u201cThank you for representing us proudly!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Miss South Africa Places Third in Eilat Miss Universe Pageant After Rejecting Pressure at Home to Boycott Israel Shiryn Ghermezian Lalela Mswane, Miss South Africa 2021, is announced as a Top 3 finalist during the 70th Miss Universe Competition\u00ae on December 12, 2021 at the Universe Arena in Eilat, Israel. Photo: Tracy Nguyen\/Miss Universe. Miss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91646"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91661,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91646\/revisions\/91661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}