Israeli Female Legislators Angry Over Tourism Campaign Featuring Bikini Beauty
 

(SF)

Original Story Here

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
By Andy Soltis

Israeli female legislators are baring their anger over what they call a "pornographic" tourism campaign — featuring a bikini-clad Israeli beauty queen.

The racy photo of 2004 Miss Israel winner Gal Gadot appears on formal invitations to an event hosted in New York Tuesday night by the Israeli Consulate in conjunction with Maxim magazine.

The affair is to "celebrate" the magazine's "Women of the Israeli Defense Forces" article in the July issue.

But prominent Israeli women say using sex to market the Land of Milk and Honey is "an outrage."

Former Consul-General Colette Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament, demanded an urgent meeting Monday with the Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to get an explanation of what she called the "pornographic campaign," the newspaper Yediot Achronoth reported.

The consulate in New York says the campaign is just seeking good demographics.