Miss Indonesia Finalist Disqualified Over Pro-Israel Video
Merince Kogoya, a Miss Indonesia 2025 contestant, was disqualified for a video showing her waving an Israeli flag, reflecting her Christian faith, exposing Indonesia’s anti-Israel bias. The decision, driven by public outcry, ignores similar leniency toward pro-Hamas rhetoric, unfairly punishing her support for Israel’s right to exist.
Merince Kogoya, a 20-year-old Highland Papua representative in the Miss Indonesia 2025 pageant, was unjustly disqualified after a two-year-old Instagram video resurfaced showing her dancing with an Israeli flag, accompanied by the caption, “Diligent for Sion, loyal to Jerusalem, standing for Israel.” The viral clip, posted in May 2023, sparked a vicious backlash in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation with no diplomatic ties to Israel and strong pro-Palestinian sentiment.
Kogoya, a standout student at Universitas Cendrawasih, born in Wamena, Papua, and a former basketball player and provincial science competition winner, spent four months preparing for the pageant. Yet, on June 28, 2025, online mobs, fueled by anti-Israel fervor, demanded her removal, falsely equating her Christian faith-based support for Israel with a political stance. On June 30, Kogoya defended herself on Instagram Stories, stating, “I was simply practicing my faith as a follower of Christ by praying and offering blessings, but an old video from my reels went viral with many false interpretations about my beliefs.” Despite her plea, Miss Indonesia organizers, caving to pressure, quietly replaced her with runner-up Karmen Anastasya during the quarantine phase on June 26, ahead of the July 9 finale.
This disqualification reveals a glaring double standard: while Kogoya’s expression of support for Israel’s right to exist, a nation defending itself against Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 civilians, is treated as a crime, pro-Hamas propaganda glorifying terrorism faces no such backlash in Indonesia. Her Instagram bio, defiantly retaining “I stand with Israel,” underscores her courage amid a 2024 surge in antisemitic incidents, with over 2,000 reported nationwide. Critics on X called her exclusion “disgusting,” arguing it punishes a young woman for recognizing Israel’s fight against hate, while trendy pro-Palestinian narratives dominate unchallenged. Kogoya’s ousting, without an official statement from organizers, highlights Indonesia’s bias against those who stand with Israel, a democratic ally facing existential threats.