The annual Miss Universe beauty pageant will take place in Israel for the first time this December, organizers announced Tuesday.

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The Miss Universe Organization said that the contest will be held this December in the southern resort city of Eilat. The Israeli bid to hold the event goes back two years and has been complicated by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which slowed negotiations.

Steve Harvey will once again host the three-hour event, which will be broadcast in 180 countries. It will end with the current Miss Universe, Mexico's Andrea Meza, crowning her successor.

Meza, a former software engineer, has advocated for women's rights and is also encouraging people to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Soon after she was named Miss Universe, Meza invited the media to cover her first vaccination shot in New York.

In a statement released by the Miss Universe Organization, Meza said she hopes "as many people as possible" get vaccinated so they can participate in the 70th Miss Universe contest.

Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov welcomed the announcement.

"The Miss Universe pageant is undoubtedly an important and significant event, and it will be held in Israel in accordance with all the coronavirus safety guidelines required," he said.

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According to sources familiar with the discussions, representatives of the Miss Universe Organization, which holds the rights over the competition, met with Israeli producers in New York and even secretly visited Israel.

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Both sides have expressed a willingness to move forward with the idea, but more than a few obstacles exist, including the upcoming general election in Israel, which hampers communication with the relevant government ministries, and budgetary concerns.

Unlike the Eurovision, where participants hailed from 41 European countries with normal diplomatic relations with Israel, over 100 countries take part in the Miss Universe contest, including some Arab countries who are in conflict with Israel. Their delegations' entry into Israel, if they would even wish to come, would require the approval of special visas and the involvement of security agencies.

"The goal … is to host the event as early as this year, but at the same time we are looking into the option of holding the 2020 event here," said one familiar source. "And then, maybe, even though it's a cliché, world peace can come of it," he added.

Miss Universe is the most widely viewed beauty pageant in the world. The competition was established in 1926, consists of beauty queens from across the globe and always makes headlines. If the talks come to fruition, Israel would benefit from a wave of positive publicity.

To compare, this year's Eurovision in Israel garnered some 200 million viewers, while almost 600 million people across the globe watched Miss Universe. Unlike Eurovision, which is always hosted by the previous year's winning country, Miss Universe is hosted randomly and independent of the results.

Israel's representative for this year's pageant is Sella Sharlin, 22, from Tel Yitzhak. The event will take place in December, and with a great deal of effort, it could be held here in Israel.

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A dozen contestants cautiously trod the catwalk – at times assisted – in the city of Haifa, with hair coiffed, make-up applied and sashes adorning their dresses.

Several generations of relatives, along with well-wishers, cheered and snapped pictures, underscoring the organizers' message that the contest bestows glamour and honor on the dwindling number of those whose youth was stolen in wartime Europe but who went on to build new lives for themselves in Israel.

"I'm very happy. It's something special," said the new Miss Holocaust Survivor, Polish-born Tova Ringer, who lost her parents, four sisters and a grandmother at the Auschwitz death camp.

"I don't have words for the people working here. They gave so much ... heart for us," she told Reuters.

"I wouldn't believe that at my age I would be a beauty," the former jeweler laughed, her tiara perched on her white hair.

Other contestants included a retired gynecologist and gas technician, both 81 years old, and two authors of Holocaust memoirs. The youngest, 74, still works as a teacher despite complications of pneumonia she suffered as a baby in Romania.

Some commentators and survivors worry that the event cheapens the memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.

But one German spectator deemed it "a wonderful celebration."

"It is very important for my generation to know the history of the Holocaust, of the Shoah, and it is important for me to support these people," said Jan Fischer, a 52-year-old credit card manager from Munich.

"I wish that this [genocide] won't happen again – never."

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