12 November 2021

The South African Communist Party (SACP) urges Miss South Africa organisation and Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane to withdraw from the Miss Universe pageant in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are subjugated under the apartheid regime of Israel. The venue for the 70^th edition of the Miss Universe pageant, which is scheduled to take place next month, is in a Palestinian territory occupied by the apartheid Israeli regime, Eilat. This contradicts the claim by Miss Universe that one purpose of the pageant is to “empower” women. Palestinian women, and children, are the worst affected by the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel, and by the atrocities and the human rights violations with which the apartheid Israeli regime carried out and enforces the occupation.

Miss South Africa organisation and Miss South Africa need to think about the situation of the oppressed majority under the successive colonial and apartheid regimes that prevailed in South Africa. The Palestinian people, with women and children the worst affected, are in a similar, if perhaps not a worse, situation today. Miss South Africa organisation and Miss South Africa need to sympathise with the Palestinian people.

As the oppressed people of South Africa under apartheid, we overcame the oppressive regime with the support of international solidarity. The expropriated and oppressed people of Palestine need the same international solidarity support today, if not more of it.

Like South Africans, the Palestinian people have the right to democratic national sovereignty and self-determination, not least in their occupied territories, which the apartheid Israeli regime must evacuate and return to them. There can be no normal Miss Universe in an abnormal situation, in an occupied Palestinian territory. 

The SACP reiterates its solidarity with the people of Palestine against occupation of Palestinian territories and apartheid oppression by Israel. The working-class, democratic formations and individuals need to unite on a global basis in support of the liberation of the Palestinian people.