{"id":140536,"date":"2018-06-13T10:33:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T10:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/miss-iraq-and-miss-israel-reunited-after-selfie-controversy\/"},"modified":"2018-06-13T10:33:04","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T10:33:04","slug":"miss-iraq-and-miss-israel-reunited-after-selfie-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/miss-iraq-and-miss-israel-reunited-after-selfie-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Iraq and Miss Israel reunited after selfie controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MissImage copyright Sarah Idan\/Instagram
Image caption Sarah Idan (right) captioned her 2017 pageant selfie "Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel" <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Six months ago, a simple selfie between two Miss Universe contestants provoked a backlash that pushed one to flee her home country, her family in tow.<\/p>\n

Sarah Idan was representing Iraq at the 2017 pageant in Las Vegas when she snapped a picture with Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman, and posted it online.<\/p>\n

In the caption, she wrote "Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel".<\/p>\n

But some people in Iraq did not see it that way and, she said, sent her death threats.<\/p>\n

Skip Instagram post by sarahidan <\/p>\n

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Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel \u2764\ufe0f\u2764\ufe0f\ud83d\udc95\ud83d\udc95 #missuniverse<\/p>\n

A post shared by Sarah Idan (Sarai) \u0633\u0627\u0631\u0629 \u0639\u064a\u062f\u0627\u0646 (@sarahidan) on

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End of Instagram post by sarahidan<\/p>\n

\"InstagramImage Copyright sarahidan sarahidan Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n

Iraq and Israel have no diplomatic relations, and Ms Idan's message was interpreted by some as an endorsement of Israel and a betrayal of Palestinian Arabs.<\/p>\n

"When I posted the picture I didn't think for a second there would be blowback," she told CNN at the time. "I woke up to calls from my family and the Miss Iraq Organization going insane. The death threats I got online were so scary."<\/p>\n

Ms Idan and her family relocated to the US, but on Monday she was reunited with Ms Gandelsman in Israel, where the two posted fresh pictures online. Ms Idan posted a photograph and a video on her Instagram page, with the caption "Sisters reunion".<\/p>\n

Skip Instagram post 2 by sarahidan <\/p>\n

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Sisters reunion \ud83d\udc95\ud83d\udc95 magazine photo shoot #missiraq #missisrael \u0627\u062c\u062a\u0645\u0639\u0646\u0627 \u0645\u062c\u062f\u062f\u0627 \ud83d\udc95\ud83d\udc95 #\u062c\u0644\u0633\u0629_\u062a\u0635\u0648\u064a\u0631<\/p>\n

A post shared by Sarah Idan (Sarai) \u0633\u0627\u0631\u0629 \u0639\u064a\u062f\u0627\u0646 (@sarahidan) on

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End of Instagram post 2 by sarahidan<\/p>\n

\"InstagramImage Copyright sarahidan sarahidan Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n

Skip Instagram post 3 by sarahidan <\/p>\n

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@adar_gandelsman Shalom\/Salam from Jerusalem #middleeasternqueens \u0634\u0627\u0644\u0648\u0645\/\u0633\u0644\u0627\u0645 \u0645\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0642\u062f\u0633 \u0623\u0648\u0631\u0634\u0644\u064a\u0645 \ud83d\udc95\ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n

A post shared by Sarah Idan (Sarai) \u0633\u0627\u0631\u0629 \u0639\u064a\u062f\u0627\u0646 (@sarahidan) on

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\"InstagramImage Copyright sarahidan sarahidan Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n

Ms Idan, who eventually didn't place in the Miss Universe contest, toured part of Jerusalem and ate at an Iraqi-Jewish restaurant in the Mahane Yehuda shuk. <\/p>\n

"I don't think Iraq and Israel are enemies, I think maybe the governments are enemies with each other," she said in an interview with Israel's Channel 2 News. "But there's a lot of Iraqi people that don't have a problem with Israelis."<\/p>\n

Skip Instagram post 4 by sarahidan <\/p>\n

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Iraqi Jewish Restaurant serving Bamya! Yummy \ud83d\ude0b \u0645\u0637\u0639\u0645 \u064a\u0647\u0648\u062f\u064a \u0639\u0631\u0627\u0642\u064a \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0642\u062f\u0633 \u0639\u0646\u062f\u0647\u0645 \u0628\u0627\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u062a\u062c\u0646\u0646 \ud83d\ude0b<\/p>\n

A post shared by Sarah Idan (Sarai) \u0633\u0627\u0631\u0629 \u0639\u064a\u062f\u0627\u0646 (@sarahidan) on

Report <\/p>\n

End of Instagram post 4 by sarahidan<\/p>\n

\"InstagramImage Copyright sarahidan sarahidan Report<\/a><\/noindex> <\/figure>\n

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he welcomed her visit.<\/p>\n

"Friendly relations between Israelis & Arabs will definitely help in ushering in a better tomorrow for all of us in the Middle East," he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Back in November, Ms Idan refused to take down her original selfie, despite what she said was pressure from the Miss Iraq organisation, but she did add a follow up post saying she had not intended to cause offence.<\/p>\n

"I would like to apologise to anyone who considered the photo to be offensive to the Palestinian cause as this was not the aim behind the post, it was merely a call to peace and hope for a solution to the crisis," she wrote.<\/p>\n

When she appeared at the 2017 pageant she was the first Miss Universe contestant to represent Iraq for 45 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Sarah Idan\/InstagramImage caption Sarah Idan (right) captioned her 2017 pageant selfie "Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel" Six months ago, a simple selfie between two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}