MK Colette Avital (Labor) has demanded that the Knesset plenum debate what she described as the "pornographic" campaign to encourage tourism sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism and the Foreign Ministry.'

Avital's ire was raised by an advertisement that appeared in the American men's magazine "Maxim"; where Israel's 2004 beauty queen appears in a bikini; in an invitation to an event saluting Israeli beauty and women in the IDF.

Avital, who has served in the past as Israel's consul general in New York, wondered whether "the best way to encourage tourism to Israel is by developing sex tourism."

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Meretz party chairman Zahava Gal-On was also enraged. "It is unfortunate that the New York consulate thinks that Israel's relevance will be expressed by the use of naked women who are treated as an object, and not as women of substance who exude achievement and success."

"It?s a shame that the consulate has not understood that countries of the Western world cannot market themselves through the use of half naked women,' added Gal-On.

Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich said that the ministry has no connection to the campaign.