The 70th Miss Universe pageant is being staged in the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat in December. Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment and requests for comment to the country’s Tourism Ministry, which hosted Meza’s visit to the Old City on Wednesday, were unanswered. Jerusalem’s Old City, home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, lies at the heart of the decades-long conflict. Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. Wearing a flowing, full-length dress with flat sandals, Meza meandered through the mostly empty cobblestoned alleyways of the Old City, stopping to peek into shops as a media scrum followed.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 22, 2021 16:06 UTC