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Miss Israel is getting death threats in the wake of accusations she gave the side-eye to Miss Palestine on stage at the Miss Universe pageant last week, she told The Post.
The “unleashed hate” came right after a video of the Thailand event, purportedly showing Miss Israel Melanie Shiraz, 27, shooting a dirty look at nearby Miss Palestine Nadeen Ayoub, 27, went viral.
“It’s not only death threats, but sexual assault threats,” Shiraz, a former campus advocate at UC Berkeley, told The Post from Thailand on Friday. “I experienced antisemitism before but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”
The Jewish beauty queen has had to fend off rabid pro-Palestine protesters over the past week, and received vile messages on her social media, including one that read: “Hitler should have finished the job.”
“It’s very isolating. I experience a level of hatred – in magnitude and depth – that no one will experience,” Shiraz said. “Having extra security is not a normal experience.”
The unofficial video footage posted to the social media account of Miss Palestine — who was dogged by controversy as a Canadian living in Dubai and representing the Palestinian state — was deceptively edited, according to Shiraz.
Shiraz ripped the footage, filmed during a pre-pageant ceremony, as “sensationalizing, intentionally misleading, edited, or incomplete content – and it’s forced her to have added security ahead of the Nov. 21 pageant, she said.
Other video angles of the stage clearly show that Miss Israel was standing well behind Miss Palestine, so her sideways glance was not aimed at her Middle Eastern competitor.
The brunette beauty said she noticed a photographer at the ceremony trained at her and Miss Palestine. “I realized that he was just angling towards her – and therefore me, because I was right behind her.”
The dubious footage was soon posted to Miss Palestine’s social media alongside the Sia song “Unstoppable,” with comments like “Israel looking at the REAL QUEEN” and “What’s going on with Pinky Pinky at the back?” ripping Shiraz’s supposed side eye.
The video was elevated to a near-international incident by celebs such as Israel-hating Bella Hadid, who reposted the doctored footage from Ayoub’s post. The “clipped” imagery was deployed with “the aim to make me look bad and create a narrative of jealousy,” said Shiraz.
Shiraz supporters backed their American-born beauty queen.
“The footage is not real – it’s doctored,” asserted Eylon Levy, former spokesperson to Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that the two beauties “aren’t even standing next to each other.” It was “stitched together to make Israel look bad” and create “fake outrage,” claimed the former spox. “Millions of people lapped it up because they wanted it to be true.”
Shiraz, a former data scientist, remains defiant. “That’s why I’m doing this – it’s the reality of being a Jewish person on this planet today. It’s unjust.”
Ayoub didn’t return a request for comment.
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