On October 1, the winner of the Miss Greece pageant, Rafaela Plastira, gave a vague statement that she was withdrawing from competing in Miss Universe because, mumble mumble, Israel.
Her exact words were:
I will not be attending “Miss universe” this year. The reason for that is the country. I am absolutely not disrespecting the country. I love all countries from all over the world but my heart goes to all the people fighting for there lives in Israel & Palestina. I can’t go up that stage and act like nothing is happening when people are fighting for there [sic] lives out there.
This was over six weeks ago.
Greek news sites ignored the story. I can barely find any stories about this in Greek media. The runner up Katerina Kouvoutsaki was quickly set up as the new Miss Greece, and then two weeks ago she withdrew for health reasons and now Miss Greece is Sofia Arapogianni, a stunning beauty, who is preparing to go to Israel.
But now, the BDSers finally found out about Plastira, and is starting to tweet about her and make her into a heroine.
Greek fans will still have someone to cheer at the contest. The only thing that seems to have been accomplished is that a more qualified contestant will be in Eilat.
Plastira ended her message by vowing to compete in future pageants. I somehow doubt that she will have much success; no one wants a contestant who is that ignorant and who causes problems for the people who had been working with her.
UPDATE: Israellycool dug deeper (he does pop-culture like no one else) and found that Plastira was never the official Miss Universe Greece to begin with! She was some other contest winner but her organization is not the one that is the official Miss Universe-linked group.
