The French interior minister strongly condemned the anti-Semitic insults against the Miss France 2021 pageant finalist, who is of Israeli descent.
I am “deeply shocked by the barrage of anti-Semitic insults,” tweeted Minister Gerald Darmanin, adding that police have already opened an investigation.
April Benayoum, 21, finished second in the televised contest on Saturday, but her moment in the spotlight was quickly spoiled. When she described herself as an Italian-Israeli during an interview on set, the comment sparked a barrage of tirades on Twitter. Some of the insults made mention of the Holocaust.
Benayoum, who was Miss Provence before competing nationally, was born to a Serbo-Croat mother and an Israeli father.
“It is sad to witness this kind of behavior in 2020,” Benayoum told the Var-Matin newspaper after receiving the insults. “But it doesn’t affect me at all.”
The contest organizers were quick to condemn the insults, saying it was “totally against the values of the broadcaster, the production and the contest.”
The Union of Jewish Students in France said that “Miss France 2021 is no longer a beauty pageant, it is an anti-Semitism pageant.”
Amandine Petit, Miss France winner, told BFM television that the comments were “inappropriate” and “extremely disappointing”.