By AMELIE BOTBOL
JNS
“Seeing so many people express joy over Charlie Kirk’s murder shows how deeply we are failing as a society to protect free speech and the right to hold an opinion,” pro-Israel advocate and influencer Noa Cochva, told JNS.
Violnce In Society
Cochva, a model, who represented Israel at Miss Universe in 2021, said the assassination of U.S. conservative media personality Kirk highlights the rise of violence in society, mentioning the death threats she herself received for expressing her views.
“I’ve gotten used to seeing messages like ‘I want you dead’ and ‘Hitler was right.’ People want me dead—not necessarily because they know who I am, but because they hate my opinion,” she said.
“Since when did we become a society that not only cancels people for their beliefs but seeks to annihilate them for their opinions? It’s intimidating, but I don’t see myself stopping what I’m doing,” she continued.
Involvement
Cochva, who served as a combat medic in the IDF reserves and has been active in advocacy since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 Israelis, spoke about how she decided to take up the role of speaking on behalf of the Jewish people.
About a week and a half after the Gaza war began, a friend jokingly suggested that Cochva should fulfill her role as a beauty queen by contributing to world peace. Soon after, she recorded her first advocacy video from her IDF base, propping up her phone on a pile of chairs as a makeshift tripod.
“We had no expectations, but the video went viral and reached millions of views,” she said. “That’s when I realized I had a very strong platform. I began sharing my experiences in the military, and one thing led to another. It made me understand that perhaps this was the reason God put me on the path to becoming Miss Universe Israel—so I would have the stage and the platform to speak about Israel and my military service.
“My message is that Israeli women are both soldiers and beauty queens—strong and feminine at the same time,” she added. “What I want to do is talk about my country, and it felt completely natural to me.”
In 2021, the Miss Universe pageant was held in Israel with some 83 contestants from around the world participating. “They were here for the first candle of Chanukah. I remember explaining the holiday to them, and we lit a beautiful menorah together,” Cochva said. “I thought to myself that God hadn’t put me in this position to win the crown—I wasn’t even a model back then—but to show these girls what it truly means to be an Israeli.”
Cochva spoke about being an army commander and leading male soldiers, noting that it surprised the visiting beauty queens and demonstrated that Israel is a leader in women’s empowerment.
After Oct. 7
The year after the pageant, Cochva began modeling. In 2023, when Hamas launched the Oct. 7 attack, she was called up as a reservist just five hours after it began.
Cochva explained that she tried to maintain contact with the beauty queens, and on Oct. 7, some of them reached out to ask how she was doing. She sent back a picture of herself in uniform and spent the next three days sharing all the information she had, hoping they would speak up for Israel. Despite collectively having tens of millions of followers, she said none of them took any action. She added that most of the women ignored her, and when they did respond, they accused Israel of committing genocide.
Cochva said she urged them to raise awareness about the hostages, pointing out that it could have been them if they had been in Israel on Oct. 7, but they remained indifferent despite the data she provided.
Debunking Misinformation
In August, Cochva toured the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, where she saw trucks of humanitarian aid waiting to be collected and distributed by relief organizations. She noted that the tour included not only “influencers,” but also foreign journalists from around the world.
“People claim that Israel is starving Palestinians and blocking aid, when in reality Israel is facilitating so much assistance that it’s absurd to suggest there is a famine. Once you set foot there, you realize how outrageous those lies are. All this food could feed so many people—you see oil, flour, lentils, corn, literally everything, even cookies,” she said.
Cochva recalled using these experiences to debunk misinformation, including over a year ago when she filmed a video in Central Park in New York City, blindfolded and tied to a chair to raise awareness about the hostage issue.
Cochva recounted that a group of students once approached her to discuss events in Gaza, repeating familiar claims such as the genocide of Palestinians. She shared her experience as a combat medic in the military, explaining that she had treated Palestinians injured in Gaza, including Hamas fighters.She said that she asked the students whether they thought a country committing genocide would actually instruct its medics to save enemy lives. While the conversation did not make them pro-Israel, they said they would start consulting a broader range of sources about the country.
Cochva reflected on the impact of her advocacy on Jewish youth abroad.
“I once spoke at a Jewish school about what it means to be Miss Israel, serving in the military, being at Israel’s border with Gaza, and growing up in Israel. Three months later, I attended a gala where someone approached me to thank me—because the same day I spoke, his daughter came home from school and said she wanted to make aliyah, join the military, and be like me,” she said.
