Controversy surrounds next Sunday's Miss Universe Pageant as Middle East politics became an unwelcome part of the storyline over the weekend.
Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, posted a selfie featuring herself, Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige.
"Good morning from us" read the caption on Instagram:
According to the Lebanon Daily Star, "two words for Miss Lebanon" was a trending topic all weekend with plenty of criticism from Greige's homeland:
"You could have avoided mingling with the Israeli contestant like previous Lebanese contestants have done throughout the years. And if you were harassed like you say, you could have at least avoided the huge smile [we see] on your face," read an example of one of the critical tweets.
As the hate continued to pour in, what did Greige do? She blamed Miss Israel, naturally:
"Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me)," Greige wrote in English on her Facebook page.
"I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself, suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media."
For her part, Matalon responded to the controversy on her own Facebook page.
"It doesn't surprise me, but it still makes me sad. Too bad you can not put the hostility out of the game," she wrote in English and Hebrew.
As the pageant begins this Sunday, many will be pretending that the event is designed to bring together the people of the world and embrace peace and harmony wherever we can. And in the backdrop will be this ugly spectacle of one contestant admitting she avoided any real contact with another due to hatred. Wonder if this issue will find its way into the "Q & A" segment of the pageant.
