A Miss Universe Greece contestant who announced her withdrawal from the Miss Universe pageant to be held in Israel, citing the Palestinian issue, has been proven to be a fraud, reported The Jerusalem Post.
The organization representing Miss Greece 2021 denounced the boycotting 'beauty contestant' Rafaele Plastira as a fraud and condemned the beauty contest Star & Mr GS Hellas, which served as this year's national competition for Miss Universe, and was won by Miss Greece Sofia Arapogianni.
"The issue of Rafaela Plastira leaving Miss Universe 2021, on which she referred to the Palestinian issue, is all false. Rafaela Plastira is Star Hellas 2019 and that is her only title, she never had been anointed to represent our country at MISS UNIVERSE 2021, as MISS UNIVERSE GREECE.
"The official MISS UNIVERSE GREECE for 2021, is Sofia Arapogianni, which was announced by Miss World 2021 and is the crown of the GS HELLAS NATIONAL BEAUTY with the title MISS GS HELLAS 2021.
"I would like to inform all Greeks that the national organisation GS HELLAS, is the one that maintains the legal rights and contracts for the representative crowned Miss Universe Greece, but also for her participation in the Miss Universe 2021 pageant. Everything else is false, non-existent and misinformation. " wrote Star & Mr GS Hellas on a social media post."
According to the news report, the statement came after Star & Mr GS Hellas was contacted by David Lange, Executive Director of Israellycool Israel Advocacy, inquiring about the discrepancy between Plastira's boycott announcement and Miss Greece's official contest website.
"When I saw the haters spreading the news that Rafaela Plastira had withdrawn as Miss Greece, a few things seemed off," said Lange. "Why wasn't the Greek press reporting about her withdrawal? Why didn't she appear on the Facebook page of Star GS Hellas Organization, which selects Miss Greece for the Miss Universe competition? So I contacted Star GS Hellas, who confirmed she was never the Greek representative for Miss Universe, to begin with."
As reported over a week ago by Greece City Times, Rafaele Plastira announced her 'withdrawal' from the Miss Universe pageant citing the Palestinian issue, and immediately drew praise from BDS activists.
Among those to welcome her announcement was the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) noting that “Palestinians salute Greek contestant Rafaele Plastira for withdrawing from Miss Universe hosted by apartheid Israel.”
“I will not be attending ‘Miss universe’ this year. The reason for that is the country,” she said. “I can’t go up that stage and act like nothing is happening when people are fighting for their lives out there.”
Plastira however clarified her stance towards Israel, something that was omitted from most of the media coverage.
“I am absolutely not disrespecting the country [Israel]. I love all countries from all over the world but my heart goes to all the people fighting for their lives in Israel & Palestine.” she added.
In a separate post, Plastira expressed her admiration for the Palestinian people, writing: “I may not live in Palestine but Palestine lives in my heart forever”.
