Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu, a 21-year-old model from India who was recently crowned Miss Universe 2021, has managed to provoke a rather heated reaction online with but a single Instagram post which simply carried some complimentary remarks about Israel.
In said post, the model offered her thanks to Israel for hosting this year’s Miss Universe pageant "in your beautiful country, the Holy Land".
She added: "It’s a pleasure and honour for me to witness the great historic places in Jerusalem and marvellous hotels in Eilat - can’t wait to come back again to Israel."
Although many social media users seemed to appreciate Sandhu’s post and praised her for her graciousness and generosity of spirit, there were some who opted instead to berate her for what they apparently perceived as support for Israel.
"Can't believe you are supporting Israel and going there after so much happened," one netizen wrote.
"Thank you for visiting and participating in apartheid state - hopefully you enjoyed long live Palestine," stated another.
"As an Indian woman, whose people went through years and years of oppression by the British Invasion, don’t you think you should stand by the oppressed and with humanity?" inquired a third who went on: "Israel was once a land who was owned by Palestine and then through oppression, invasion and human rights violations, it became Eilat rather than Um Rashrash, Tel Aviv rather than Jaffa, Ashdod rather than Isdod and on goes the story."
A number of users also left somewhat less elaborate comments, simply writing "Palestine" or "Palestine Forever".
The Miss Universe 2021 pageant was held in the Israeli resort city of Eilat this month.