
For the first time in 70 years, Israel will not send a representative to the 70th Miss Universe Competition which will be held in the US in January 2023.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Miss Israel administration announced: “We will not participate in the Miss Universe contest this year.”
The Times of Israel reported that opinions are divided on whether beauty pageants are relevant in current times.
Miss Israel 2019 Sella Sharlin told Radio 103FM: "I think that the competition, for those who aren't familiar with it in depth, today gives a lot of tools to anyone who is chosen.
"At the end of the day, this competition gives a platform and a place for women to lead, to initiate, and not necessarily to talk about beauty,” she said.
Miss Israel 2003 Sivan Klein supported the cancellation of the national pageant.
“Queen Elizabeth has died, and now the beauty queen contest is buried. Definitely not a time to be a queen, but maybe it’s a slightly better time to be a woman," said Sivan, now a Channel 12 television host.
She added: “There were real queens, regardless of beauty, and the organizers really thought it was important to empower women, but come on… in twenty twenty something, you can also say that this competition is no longer a thing.”
Miss Israel 1998 Linor Abargil, now a lawyer and an actress, believes it's time to end the national pageant.
“A woman is not a body or a face and no one in the world has the right to criticize us, or to assess our weight to see if it matches what is going on in the market!
“People change, the world changes, it is permissible to say we were wrong and move on to a world where women will continue to run the world but only because of who they are, and not because of anything else," said Linor on Instagram, according to a report by the Times of Israel.
In 2021, Israel hosted the 70th Miss Universe Competition for the first time.
The first Miss Universe titleholder from Israel was Rina Messinger who was crowned in Hong Kong in 1976.
In 2004, Gal Gadot represented Israel in the Miss Universe contest in Australia. She lost in the pageant but she went on to become a popular Hollywood star, playing "Wonder Wonder" in her first major role in 2017.