Contestant Excluded from "Miss Indonesia 2025" for Supporting Israel
Organizers of the "Miss Indonesia 2025" competition announced the exclusion of contestant Merins Kojuya, representing the province of "Highland Papua", after a video surfaced showing her raising the Israeli flag and praying for Israel, sparking widespread anger in the predominantly Muslim country.
According to the German news agency, the decision to exclude her was officially made on June 26, after the video circulated widely on social media. The footage, believed to have been filmed two years ago (before the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023), shows Kojuya holding the Israeli flag and reciting a prayer for Israel.
Although the video predates the recent war, the contestant's actions were widely interpreted as a show of solidarity with Israel during the aggression on Gaza, leading the organizers to disqualify her from the competition and replace her with another contestant.
In response, Kojuya defended her position in a statement posted on her Instagram account on Monday, emphasizing that the video was "not a political statement" but an expression of her Christian faith, according to her.
