Ayoub wore an oriental-inspired look, including a white tank top and white pants adorned with brown and white embellishments. Over this outfit, she wore a white robe with a long train featuring paintings of the Dome of the Rock and Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, alongside olive branches.

As a reminder, Ayoub has received considerable criticism for living in luxury towers in Dubai while representing the Palestinians, and it has now been revealed that the designer she chose is actually an Emirati designer named Navin al-Qadi, based in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, Miss Israel Melanie Shiraz wore a yellow dress to recall the fallen hostages still held in Hamas captivity and the survivors of captivity who were held for two years. A Star of David appeared on her chest area, and red flowers were visible at the bottom of the dress as a tribute to the red anemones in the south. The dress was maxi-length and featured a scarf and a head covering.

The national costume segment takes place every year as part of the Miss Universe competition, during which representatives of different countries take the stage wearing clothing items inspired by their local traditions. This year, the segment became more explosive.

Social media reactions came quickly. "It's not enough that she represents a country that doesn't exist, she has no connection to this country and the symbols she's wearing," one social media user wrote. "That's Jerusalem anyway, it shouldn't appear on their national costume. Simply an infuriating look," another user wrote.

A reminder that Transportation Minister Miri Regev also wore a dress featuring the Dome of the Rock in the past, at the Cannes Film Festival opening during her tenure as culture minister. The dress was designed by Aviad Arik Herman.

This isn't the first time Miss Palestine Nadine Ayoub has sparked controversy since being chosen to represent the Palestinians at the world's biggest beauty pageant. Last month, Ayoub published a series of posts about the war on social media, with one of them inflating the number of Palestinian casualties and another presenting Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the Israeli children murdered in Hamas captivity, as Palestinian victims of the war.

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"It's very isolating. I experience a level of hatred – in magnitude and depth – that no one will experience," Shiraz stated. "Having extra security is not a normal experience."

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The disputed clips shared on Ayoub's social media account contained deceptive editing, Shiraz maintains, stating that the material was "sensationalizing, intentionally misleading, edited, or incomplete content" – forcing her to arrange additional security for the Nov. 21 competition. Alternative video perspectives show Miss Israel positioning herself significantly behind Miss Palestine, making it physically impossible for her to direct a lateral glance at her Middle Eastern rival. She explained she observed a photographer focusing on both women during the pre-pageant ceremony. "I realized that he was just angling towards her – and therefore me, because I was right behind her."

The questionable clips appeared on Ayoub's social media, featuring Sia's "Unstoppable," with celebrities including Bella Hadid amplifying the video by reposting the manipulated material from Ayoub's account. The "clipped" images were weaponized with "the aim to make me look bad and create a narrative of jealousy," Shiraz stated to The New York Post.

Supporters defended their American-born beauty queen, with former Netanyahu spokesperson Eylon Levy declaring to The New York Post: "The footage is not real – it's doctored," noting the contestants "aren't even standing next to each other." The material was "stitched together to make Israel look bad" and manufactured "fake outrage," Levy argued. "Millions of people lapped it up because they wanted it to be true."

Shriaz maintains her resolve despite the harassment. "That's why I'm doing this – it's the reality of being a Jewish person on this planet today. It's unjust," she said.

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@de.warriors_ Miss Universe Palestine 2025 berdampingan deng Miss Universe Israel 2025 #fyp #fypage #fypシ゚ #The74thMissUniverse #nadeenayoub #missuniversepalestine2025 #melanieshiraz #missuniverseisrael2025 #missuniverse #hellouniverse #missuniverse2025 #74thmissuniverse #semesta #alamsemesta #missgrandslam #grandslam #globalbeauties #pageant #pageantlovers #pageantry #worldpageant #worldpageantry #internationalpageant #beautypageant #beautyqueen #hajatanpageant #pageantsday #pageantday #lebaranpageant ♬ suara asli - Pageant_Warrior

After both representatives, along with nearly 90 other contestants, introduced themselves, they walked to the front of the stage – where contest organizers placed them next to each other, apparently to generate drama and headlines. Those who didn't miss the dramatic moment were social media users, especially pro-Palestinians, who chose to respond to the exchange of glances and tension between the two.

"I love how Miss Palestine looks calm while Miss Israel looks furious," one pro-Palestinian user wrote, while another user responded cynically, "She doesn't even look furious. But why would she be mad at a representative of a country that doesn't exist but still got to participate in the contest?"

Videos uploaded online highlighted Miss Israel Melanie Shiraz's face as she rolls her eyes the moment she sees Miss Palestine Nadeen Ayoub approaching her and smiling at the cameras with obvious artificiality. Other footage of the two shows the Palestinian Nadine standing one step ahead of the Israeli Shiraz.

"Miss Israel's look was childish and out of place. I'm pro-Israel, but politics shouldn't enter the contest," one user claimed, referring to Miss Israel Melanie Shiraz's facial expressions. However, Israeli users defended Miss Israel. "Obviously she looks at her that way. She lies on social media all day and defames her people, it's her right to look at her that way," one user wrote.

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Miss Israel has solid reasons to be upset with Miss Palestine Nadeen Ayoub. Last month, Ayoub published a series of posts about the war on social media, where in one she inflated the number of Palestinian casualties and in another she presented Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the Israeli children murdered in Hamas captivity, as Palestinian victims of the war.

The participation of a first-ever Palestinian representative in the Miss Universe contest was announced for the first time last August, when Ayoub's name also made headlines. However, she doesn't actually reside in the Palestinian Authority territories, but in towers in Dubai, a fact that attracted criticism toward her.

The post Moment Israeli and Palestinian Miss Universe contestants placed side by side goes viral appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Ayoub published a series of posts about the Gaza war on social media, which have since been deleted, and was caught lying repeatedly. In one post, Ayoub claimed that the number of casualties in Gaza stands at 680,000 – ten times the unverified figures cited by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.

In another post, she claimed that significant Israeli sites – including Masada and the Western Wall – are located in Palestinian territories. The controversy reached its height when Ayoub shared videos of Israeli children, including Noya Dan, Kfir Bibas, and Ariel Bibas, who were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, and were presented as Palestinians.

In Ayoub's post, which has since been deleted, she wrote that these children are innocent and their only "crime was that they were in Palestine", without any mention that these were actually Israeli children murdered by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

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Ayoub's false messages prompted Miss Israel, Melanie Shiraz, to respond forcefully to her posts in a separate video on social media. "She presented them in a way that implied they were Palestinian victims. Let me be absolutely clear – these children were Israeli. They were born in Israel, they lived in Israel, and they were murdered because they were Israeli. The land they came from is not called Palestine. Presenting them otherwise is a deliberate distortion designed to erase their true identity."

"To take these innocent Israeli children – murdered in their homes or in captivity – and to present them as though they were Palestinian casualties is not an act of compassion," she emphasized, adding that Ayoub spreads lies so easily refuted that they undermine her credibility.

Ayoub will represent the Palestinian territories at the Miss Universe 2025 contest to be held on November 21 in Pak Kret, Thailand – an event that will mark the first Palestinian participation since the contest's founding, where she will also meet Miss Israel Melanie Shiraz – an encounter that could be particularly explosive and it seems the real drama is still ahead.

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Beyond the obvious challenges facing the Israeli representative, this year the competition takes an additional turn – "Miss Palestine" will participate for the first time in the competition's approximately 70-year history, and on the glamorous stage in Thailand next month, an unprecedented encounter is expected alongside over 100 other delegations from around the world.

A great responsibility rests on the shoulders of 26-year-old Melanie Shiraz, who has been chosen to represent Israel, particularly in light of the new circumstances. However, she doesn't seem troubled. "As someone who built a company, I think I experienced the maximum level of mental overload," she says with a smile when I ask her about this. "When I'm driven to do something and when I really believe in it, it makes it easy. It might be overwhelming, but in the best kind of way because I know that what I'm doing is making a difference."

Not just a "pretty face"

For Melanie, it's essential to emphasize that she's not just a "pretty face" with an enviable resume at her young age – she holds two bachelor's degrees from UC  Berkeley, a master's degree from Tel Aviv University, and is the founder of a company in the fintech sector. Surprisingly, the next challenge on Melanie's list was precisely to represent Israel in the Miss Universe competition.

Q: What you've accomplished at just 26 is incredible. Why would you compete in Miss Universe? 

A: "I have a very strategic way of thinking, and that's why I really love entrepreneurship and tech. And I think that, as somebody that's also very passionate about Israel and Israel advocacy, that 'fire' started when I was at Berkeley because it was very necessary there. I just saw it as a strategic opportunity where I was thinking, you know, we're represented in Eurovision, in FIFA, and we're part of a lot of international conversations. Then I realized, we are not part of this conversation, and I just saw it as an opportunity to go, as somebody that's not from a modeling background and not from entertainment, but rather somebody that has a lot of interesting perspectives and things to share. We had a delegate last year, but before that, there were two years that we were not represented, and I think that that's very damaging for us."

Q: Israel's global reputation probably couldn't have been worse at the moment. Do you honestly think there's a good chance for you to win? 

A: "I would like to think so. I would like to think that politics shouldn't even play a part in a competition like this, because I think that this kind of competition is just apolitical in a way, for countries to come and put their disputes aside and actually bring forward a very positive message. There have been certain things that have unfolded that have made the participation, for me at least, a lot more hostile, which has not been very pleasant, but I'm trying to make the best of it.

"I hope you end up like the hostages"

Q: Are you worried about the possible backlash you might get for representing Israel?

A: I've already gotten backlash, and I always expect to get backlash. I do think that it has been worse this year because of the situation that we're in after October 7th, and the very negative perspectives a lot of people in the world have. Since the Miss Palestine situation has unfolded, it's been exponentially more than it was before. I've gotten people probably paying for bots that just completely ambushed my account with thousands of 'free Palestine,' 'baby killer,' and other horrible death threats my way, which has sucked.

"I expected it, but one thing is to expect it, and then there's one thing to get a message saying, 'I hope you end up like one of the hostages, I hope you suffer the same fate, she was shot in the head and carried naked on a truck. Some of those things send chills down my spine, and it's made me worry a little bit about my security."

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Q: We saw what happened with both Yuval Raphael and Eden Golan, our representatives at Eurovision in 2024 and 2025. 

A: "At the end of the day, they both placed pretty highly. So I think that there's a very vocal minority of people that really hate us. I think at the end of the day, both of them proved that they're able to transcend politics with their talent and with the beauty that they have to bring to the world, and that's exactly what I'm hoping that I'll be able to do."

Q: We have to address the elephant in the room. This year is quite unprecedented for Miss Universe because, for the first time, we have a new delegate – Miss Palestine. How did you feel when you heard the news for the first time?

A: "I won't lie and say that I wasn't surprised. The reason I was surprised is just because it seems to be a very political move from a seemingly nonpolitical organization. But on the other hand, I can look at it and say, you know what? I appreciate the organization for putting politics aside and wanting to empower women to speak no matter where they're from.

"I think we're here to embody peace and coexistence and bring forward very positive messages to the world. And so I think engaging and speaking about another person's country and spreading misinformation, for example, is not something that's appropriate. I think she is using her messaging to be very political and anti-Israel. And so I think that that inadvertently sends her audience to come for me. It's spreading information like '680,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th.' Not even Hamas is backing those numbers. She has a very large following, and I think it's quite careless."

"We're fighters" 

Against this backdrop, Melanie emphasizes the need for support ahead of the competition, which, like many others, also relies on public voting. "A hardship I don't blame Israelis for, because I think they're very tired of all of this stuff; it's been the lack of support. I know that they would support me if they knew of me and what I'm doing, the importance of it. But there are so many headlines every day...I'm very low down on the list of priorities. But I have the opportunity as an Israeli to reach millions. That's why I'm here, saying that the support of Israelis is very important. We're fighters, and every Israeli and Jew – as soon as they've heard of me – they were so fervently behind me. I think we have to put aside some space for representatives of Israel on cultural and not just political platforms."

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Ayoub divides her residence between Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Judea and Samaria after childhood years in Canada and the United States. The literature and psychology graduate earned her "Miss Palestine" crown in 2022 and subsequently broke barriers at Miss Earth 2022, where she secured a top-five finish and claimed the "Water Queen" title.

Her selection for Miss Universe 2025, scheduled for November 21 in Pak Kret, Thailand, represents the culmination of years building Palestinian representation in international beauty competitions. Through her Olive Green Academy, Ayoub champions sustainability initiatives while training Palestinian women as entrepreneurs and climate ambassadors, creating lasting impact beyond pageant platforms.

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The entrepreneur's commitment extends through her ongoing work with "Sayidat Falasteen," the philanthropic and media arm of the "Miss Palestine" organization. This platform amplifies Palestinian women's voices while supporting Palestinian-owned businesses, demonstrating her dedication to community empowerment alongside competitive achievement.

Announcing her participation Wednesday through Instagram to her million followers, Ayoub appeared in traditional Palestinian attire featuring embroidery by designer Hiba Abdel Karim, who previously created pieces for Queen Rania of Jordan. She emphasized that her delayed entry into Miss Universe reflected the humanitarian circumstances affecting the West Bank and Gaza.

"I am honored to announce that for the first time ever, Palestine will be represented at Miss Universe.
Today, I step onto the Miss Universe stage not just with a title—but with a truth. As Palestine endures heartbreak—especially in Gaza—I carry the voice of a people who refuse to be silenced. I represent every Palestinian woman and child whose strength the world needs to see. We are more than our suffering—we are resilience, hope, and the heartbeat of a homeland that lives on through us," Ayoub said on her Instagram post.

Public response to Ayoub's announcement reflected predictable divisions across social media platforms. Palestinian supporters and sympathizers celebrated the development as historic and groundbreaking, generating hundreds of encouraging responses while some users expressed concerns about her involvement in the competition.

Opposition voices challenged her representation of Palestinian territories, claiming she cannot be called "Miss Palestine" since it does not exist. "Shouldn't there be a country to represent it?", critics wrote online. Additional detractors targeted her physical appearance, writing, "The situation in Gaza is apparently excellent because she really doesn't look starved," referencing ongoing media reports about humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

The post Historic first: 'Miss Palestine' to compete in Miss Universe 2025 appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The pageant, now in its second year under its current format, is organized by Edgar Saakyan, owner of Edgar Entertainment, with the support of the Israeli Consulate. It replaces the iconic "Beauty Queen of Israel" contest, which for years launched the careers of many Israelis.

Though intended to select a representative for Israel at Miss Universe, the Israeli competition has for the second consecutive year been held in Miami.

Shiraz Asor, 26, competed as "Miss Caesarea". She is an Israeli Berkeley-educated tech professional, entrepreneur and content creator with a background in innovation, public diplomacy, and the arts.

She succeeds Miss Israel 2024, Ofir Korsia, who represented Israel last year with distinction. The official Miss Universe pageant will be held this November in Thailand.

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Sarah Idan pulls out her phone. "Look, this is a video from two days ago," she tells me as we meet in a friend's apartment in Los Angeles. She doesn't feel safe meeting anywhere else, not even in her own home. When I asked her about the source of her concern, she showed me the video she recorded this week.

"Stop following me," Sarah's frightened voice can be heard from behind the camera pointed at a man with an Arab appearance, sitting in a large pickup truck and smoking while looking at her maliciously. "He followed me from my house," she explains, "I even made different turns to check if he was really following me, and only when I saw that he was going everywhere I was going I started recording."

She describes how her heart was racing at those moments, thinking he might pull out a gun and kill her in the middle of the street, and recounts that only when more and more passersby gathered around them and threatened to call the police if he didn't drive away – did the man flee the scene.

Q: Who do you think sent him?

"I don't know. That's the thing, I have no idea, but it's not the first time. It happens all the time. I always have to look over my shoulder. This is my life, especially after October 7. It has definitely intensified since then: the strange activities, the cars that come and park near the apartment, the people standing there watching me. I don't know why. Maybe it's to try to scare me or something."

Q: Do you fear for your life?

"If I'm going to die, I'm going to die. It can't get worse than that. I should have been dead a long time ago."

Q: Explain this to me. You're not Israeli, not Jewish. How are you willing to continue dealing with this and sacrifice your life for Israel?

"It's not for Israel – it's for the free world. There's God's side, the good side, and there's the evil side. The people who hate Israel – the Islamists, the communists, the fascists, all these crazy people – they are, you know, against the free world and free will. Many people are mistaken when they think that everything I do is just for Israel. It's not. It's because I know that Israel is the only one standing against the terrorists, against the crazy people. So yes, I want to be on the side of the good."

Saddam and I

Idan (34), dressed in an elegant designer dress and wearing shiny Gucci heels, fits perfectly into the Hollywood landscape visible from the window. We're sitting in the penthouse of Tomer Shmulevich, an Israeli producer living in Los Angeles who was responsible for Idan's visit to Israel after October 7. Below us, luxury cars speed between the well-manicured trees and magnificent houses of Beverly Hills in the City of Stars, light-years away from where she grew up.

"I grew up in the early 90s under Saddam Hussein's rule and under severe sanctions," she recounts. "Sometimes there was no electricity at all, and sometimes only for three hours a day. Same with water rationing. Food was barely available.

"The bread, which was hard as a rock, my mother would tell us to dip in tea so we could chew it. Fruits were a luxury. I remember one day, I got a banana and took it with me to school, and all the girls were in shock. 'Oh my God, she's holding a banana, she must be really rich!'"

Q: Did you share it with them?

"Yes, they wanted to taste what a banana was like, so I cut it into pieces. Those were really tough times."

Life in Iraq during those days included not only abject poverty but also constant fear. "On every street, there was an intelligence officer who had lists of all the residents on that street, and from time to time, he would interrogate them. Saddam Hussein would kill entire families if someone from them said something negative about him. You'd wake up in the morning, and people had simply disappeared. So we lived in fear."

Cut off from the outside world, Iraqi citizens received their information directly from the regime's propaganda. Only rarely did they manage to consume content that didn't praise the dictator. "I would stay up at night because, between four and six in the morning, the opposition in Iraq would manage to broadcast a radio program, where I got information about what was really happening."

Q: As a child, did you know what was happening in the Western world? Did you read "Harry Potter" or watch Disney movies like children in the rest of the world?

"All we had was a TV with three channels, and all three were under Saddam Hussein's complete control. Sometimes, they broadcast movies from the outside world on these channels, but they are edited so badly that you can't understand what is happening in them. They would just cut out entire sections."

This memory, like many others from the Saddam era, makes her chuckle derisively. "Once they broadcast the movie 'Titanic,' but only years later did I discover how the Titanic sank because they ended the movie before the scene where Jack and Rose sleep together – and that scene happens before the collision with the iceberg!"

In a world where every piece of information was carefully filtered, where the government had a firm grip on what its citizens knew or thought, Idan, a little girl at the time, was educated like the rest of Iraq's children to hate Israel. "We were taught that there's a country of Jews that hates Iraq, and everywhere it was written 'Death to America, Death to Israel,'" she recounts. "On Thursdays, we would stand in the schoolyard to sing songs about liberating Palestine."

But hatred for the "Little Satan" – Israel – was only part of the story. Because more than Israel, she and her friends grew up with hatred for the "Big Satan" – the US. "We were taught that the Americans want to kill us all. After September 11, everyone went out to the streets to celebrate, and there were fireworks as if something happy had just happened and not a terrible disaster," she describes the period leading up to the Second Gulf War, which changed the face of the country.

In March 2003, US President George W. Bush gave the signal for the start of the war, at the end of which Iraq would be liberated from Saddam Hussein, a moment that would be recorded as one of the most significant in the history of the Middle East.

"I was 13 when the Americans entered Iraq," Idan recalls. "I was playing soccer in the street with friends, and suddenly, a convoy of military vehicles appeared. My mind exploded. It looked like an alien invasion. They had weapons and technology we had never seen before. It was a complete shock. My friends and I just froze in place."

"We thought they were going to kill us, but then a soldier came out of the tank's roof and started waving hello to us, and then more soldiers came out smiling and started handing out candies and flowers to the children with notes written in Arabic saying, 'We are here to help you, not to kill you.'"

"I remember after that I ran home and shouted, 'The Americans are here! The Americans are here!' but no one believed me. They thought I was crazy. My parents, my neighbors – no one knew anything about the Americans invading Iraq until that moment. The whole world knew except for us."

Adar and I

After the American forces invaded Baghdad, the hope for change gradually gave way to a new terror. Following the fall of Saddam's Sunni regime, chaos spread through the streets, and the situation in the city worsened.

Terror groups like Al-Qaeda and other Shiite militias took control of large parts of the city, turning the area into an ongoing battlefield. Ordinary citizens like Idan and her family found themselves trapped between American forces and terror organizations.

"They used us as human shields. There was a school behind our house where they placed anti-aircraft missile batteries to shoot at the Americans. We knew that at any moment, we could be accidentally bombed in retaliation. Two years after the invasion, one of the Shiite militias took control of our neighborhood and left a rifle bullet outside our door, with a letter saying we had to leave because we were Sunnis. In the morning, my father told me to pack, and we drove for hours from Iraq to Syria."

Even in Syria, the situation was far from safe for the Idan family: "We lived in a Palestinian refugee camp, which was full of gangs and extreme Islamists. The Palestinians in the camp would beat me and my sister when we walked around without wearing a hijab. Men kidnapped women on the street and raped them."

After two years in Syria, things in Baghdad calmed down a bit, and Idan returned to Iraq and began working for the American military. "Before we went to Syria, I saw an ad in the newspaper that said if you work for a year with the American military, you can apply for a green card. That's all I dreamed of. I immediately went to the checkpoint near my house and asked to work with them."

Q: Brave girl.

"I wanted to fly out of Iraq. Hell, I would have done anything for it, but the soldiers asked me how old I was, and when I said 15, they told me I couldn't work with them because I was too young and to come back when I was 18."

Q: And you came back?

"Yes, three years later. I went there on my birthday, applied, and was hired to work at the same checkpoint."

For two years, she worked with the American military. She served as an interpreter, checked passersby at the checkpoint, and survived several suicide bombers who exploded near her. Finally, she received the coveted green card and flew off to her new life in the land of unlimited possibilities. Initially, she settled in Texas alongside American soldiers she had met during her military service. Eventually, she decided to pursue her dream and flew to Los Angeles to study music.

With a music career ahead of her, she created music for an Egyptian film, and her future looked promising, but then a turning point occurred in her life. Her sister happened to hear about a beauty pageant for the Iraqi community in the US and decided to register her.

Idan won first place in the competition with perfect timing: after decades of Iraq not sending representatives to the Miss Universe pageant, the country decided to send a representative – and Sarah flew to the competition that changed her life.

Now, she explains exactly what happened there. "When I arrived at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas, everyone wanted to meet Miss Iraq because there hadn't been one since the 70s. It was a big deal. Everyone approached me and talked to me, except for Miss Israel. It was strange."

"During one of the photo shoots, I waved at her, and she waved back. Then, like a little bird, Adar (Gandelsman, Miss Israel 2017) approached me. I could feel she was afraid to come closer. I asked her why, and she explained that they were instructed not to talk to the models from Arab countries."

Q: And when you took that famous selfie with her, did you understand that the sky was about to fall?

"No. When I talked to Adar, I told her I had no problem with her. On the contrary, if anything – we need to show people that we're okay. So I suggested we take a picture. I posted it on Instagram and went to sleep."

While the world around her was in turmoil, Sarah was completely unaware of what was happening around her selfie. Exhausted from long days of competition, she slept soundly. "I woke up in the morning, and my phone was exploding: messages, phone calls, and everyone going crazy. My family had already received death threats, which forced them to leave Iraq. Even the managers of the 'Miss Iraq' organization who sent me were receiving threats. I think it was the Iraqi Minister of Culture who told them they would take away their license if I didn't delete the picture."

The photo storm intensified when news sites worldwide reported on the event, and eventually, Idan was forced to publish a clarification. "I told them that if I delete it, people will think I'm a weak person who can't stand up for what I believe in. The compromise was that I would post another post with a statement they wrote for me, where I announced that I don't support the Israeli government's policy in the Middle East and that I support the Palestinian cause. Of course, I deleted that post a day after the competition. I hate being told what to believe."

The statement did not quell the storm. "Since then, a flood of death threats, hate messages, and conspiracies began. People started creating videos where they took pictures of me when I was in the American military with my name – Sarah – which is a common name in Iraq but also a Jewish name, and claimed that I was a Mossad agent born in Tel Aviv."

Q: There was a full circle moment a few years ago when you were photographed with your former boss, Yossi Cohen.

She laughs. "Social media went crazy. They were very angry about it."

After the famous photo of Sarah and Adar at the Miss Universe pageant, Sarah's life underwent a sharp change: her family fled Iraq, her Iraqi citizenship was revoked, and she decided to officially become an activist against antisemitism.

"When they thought I was a Mossad agent, I dealt with crazy antisemitism and understood what you go through. They sent me messages with pictures of Hitler and wrote to me, 'It's a shame Hitler didn't finish you off' and that I'm a 'dirty Jew who came from monkeys and pigs.'"

Idan, a Muslim who grew up in Iraq, ironically experienced antisemitism. She could no longer stay silent and became a one-woman public relations machine, giving interviews to the media, attending events, and posting pro-Israel content for years.

Islam and I

Since the terrible morning of Black Saturday, the question "Where were you on October 7?" has become common among Israelis. But Idan also remembers exactly where she was and how she felt at those moments.

"I was at home when I received a phone call from my friend, Hillel (Silverman, niece of comedian Sarah Silverman), who called me from Israel. She was panicking and said to me, 'Sarah, oh my God, turn on the TV. I think we're under attack.' At first, I answered her indifferently, 'What's new? You're attacked every day.' But then I went on social media. Every video, every picture, caused me actual physical pain in my heart. I thought maybe something was wrong with my blood pressure. I couldn't watch anymore. I felt immense pressure in my head. The anger and sadness made me physically ill."

She channeled the emotions that welled up in her into what she does best: spreading the truth on social media. "I tried to share with the world what was happening and post content, mainly in Arabic, because Arab media was hiding what happened."

"They only showed videos of Hamas fighting IDF soldiers. They didn't show the young people massacred at Nova or the women who were raped, so I tried to show that to people. I wrote there, 'Look at the barbaric Hamas, see what they're doing.' And I was really shocked by their responses. They claimed it was a lie and denied it while it was happening."

Q: To this day they deny it – and not just in the Arab world, in the Western world too.

"I went to Cornell and Stanford universities. They had a tent there, and I wanted to understand what the hell was going on there, so I wore a hijab and went there. I pretended I was one of them and started talking to them in Arabic. It felt like their organization was a militia of ... you know, like the militias in Iraq. They have orders, and they follow orders. They're not regular students."

Q: Orders from whom?

"They're part of a larger organization, supported by entities like the Iranian regime, the Muslim Brotherhood, all of America's enemies. Who funds the universities? Qatar. That's why they allowed them to protest and set up tents on university grounds. If a university's board of directors gets its money directly from Qatar, aren't the protesters in the tents also getting their money from the same places?"

At some point during the war, Idan decided she had to visit Israel herself and see with her own eyes the horror that had occurred. This isn't the first time she's visited Israel, but the difference from her previous visits was enormous.

"The first time I came, people were carefree, especially in Tel Aviv. There was something in the atmosphere that reminded me of an island state. The second time it was just... the air was full of anxiety, sadness. The feeling was like when I was in Iraq during the war. It was really sad."

Q: Was there a specific moment that stayed with you?

Tears well up in her eyes as she begins to answer: "When I visited Kfar Aza, I saw a Quran that one of the Hamas members left behind, and then I saw a guy standing by the gate where Hamas entered, and he told me that his son was murdered right there. I looked at him and felt guilty."

"Of course, I'm not Hamas, and I hate Hamas, but I felt guilty and ashamed. These are my people, my religion. When I say my people, I mean Muslims. What they did in the name of religion... as an Arab, I'm ashamed. I hugged that guy at the gate of Kfar Aza and just cried with him."

Q: You're such a strong woman, and this is the first time I see you breaking down.

She pauses for a moment to wipe away the tears and drink some water. "It's hard for me that this is what my people did in the name of my religion. There's a lot of hate in the name of my religion."

Q: Were you surprised by Hamas's barbarity?

"I wasn't surprised at all. I've seen it already in Iraq, I know that's how they behave. I know how much they hate the Jewish people, and I know how barbaric they are. The difference is that if I once thought it was only radical Islamists who hate Jews, after October 7, I realized it's 90 percent of ordinary people."

"When I posted the video of the kidnapped woman with the blood-soaked pants (Naama Levy), one of the responses I got was from a woman who wished that Hamas would catch me too and turn me into a sex slave. I went to her profile and saw a picture of her with her husband and two little girls. And she's wishing for me to be a sex slave of Hamas."

"It's intense hatred for the Jewish people, stemming from the dehumanization that has been done to Jews in Arab countries for a long time. Muslims always refer to them as descendants of pigs and monkeys."

Politics and I

In the past year, she has been working full-time as an advocate for Israel worldwide and exposing the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7. When I ask her what grade she gives to Israeli public diplomacy, she laughs and politely answers: "Listen, they're trying to do their best, and they've definitely improved."

"They started looking at people like me and other activists and saying, 'Oh, we need to work with these people.' So I'll give them 70 as credit for the effort. Let's put it this way – the performance could be much better."

Q: You tried to run for the US Congress recently, and it didn't quite work out. Is politics still your goal?

"It's definitely still a goal, but I don't think it was the right time, maybe in the next elections. We'll see. I want my voice to reach as many people as possible and to be able to represent people with similar views to mine. Secular Muslims who don't want to fight Israel and don't want to support radical Islam. People who want to improve the world, improve Iraq, and protect freedom."

Q: Among all the battles you're fighting, is there time to enjoy?

"Rarely. I deal with this every day, all day. It's very intense, and it completely drains you. It leaves you exhausted, bitter, and sad. Sometimes, when it gets too heavy for me, I take a break and try to go do something I love, like playing the piano or just being with myself without the phone and without talking about politics."

Q: The cliché about beauty queens is that in their winning speech, they wish for world peace. Do you believe it's possible?

"I'm working on it. It's definitely possible, but I don't think it will happen during our lifetime. Maybe a thousand years from now."

The post Former Miss Iraq isn't afraid to salute Israel, 'I want to be on the good side' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, which this year fell on Sept. 6, the staff of IsraelHayom.com took a look through our archives and identified the most popular stories for our readers in the year that had passed since Rosh Hashanah 5781.

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But nearly four months have passed since then, and the news – good, bad, and bizarre – keeps rolling on.

As 2021 comes to a close, these are a few of the more recent stories that resonated most with Israel Hayom readers.

Noah's Ark might not be where you think it is

In October, archaeologists with the Noah's Ark Scans project said that using advanced 3D scans, they had located a giant shape in the Turkish mountains the proportions of which match the biblical descriptions of Noah's Ark. The discovery was made in the Durupinar site on Mount Tendurek in eastern Turkey.

Miss Universe tweets and the world responds

Israel hosted this year's Miss Universe pageant in the resort city of Eilat on Dec. 13. The winner, Miss India – Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu – graciously sent out a tweet saying how much she had enjoyed her visit, upsetting some social media users.

Will we or won't we?

Israel Hayom military commentator Yoav Limor's analysis of the challenges inherent in any attack on Iran's military facilities was a fascinating read that delved not only into the tactical but also the strategic and diplomatic aspects of Israel employing the "military option."

Water, water, everywhere – and a lot of cheap energy, to boot

Hydrogen fuel could solve a lot of problems for humanity, but it's expensive to produce. Now researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology might have solved that problem.

Really, Dave?

Comedian Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special, "The Closer," included a joke about alien "space Jew" travelers who want to claim the earth for their own, which apparently took aim at the outlandish and frightening accusations targeting Jews since the start of the COVID pandemic. Later on, however, Chappelle continued to riff, and it wasn't quite as funny.

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The post From planning a strike on Iran to Noah's Ark: Israel Hayom wraps up 2021   appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

India's Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu, the winner of the Miss Universe pageant that was recently held in Israel has come under fire in recent days for sharing her positive reviews of the Jewish state.

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Sandhu uploaded an Instagram reel on Dec. 15 sharing her experience and even wrote alongside the video "Shallom, Thank you from the bottom of my heart ISRAEL for hosting the 70th edition of Miss Universe in your beautiful country, the Holy Land. It's a pleasure and honor for me to witness the great historic places in Jerusalem and Marvellous hotels in Eilat, can't wait to come back again in Israel, Toda Escape from the sun."

The reaction by Israel haters was quick, and they have been flooding her profile with hostile comments over the past several days.

One user wrote, "free Palestine," and another said, "You spelt Palestine wrong," another wrote. Others resorted to emojis with the Palestinian flag.

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The post Miss Universe's pro-Israel post creates online firestorm appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.