Ex-miss Iraq calls for peace on Israel visit

Sarah Idan outraged some Iraqis by posing with Miss Israel during the 2017 Miss Universe pageant

A picture posted on Instagram on November 14 last year by Sarah Idan, who held the title Miss Iraq, seen taking a selfie with Adar Gandelsman, a Miss Israel. The caption reads: 'Peace and Love from MiShow more

A former Miss Iraq whose selfie with her Israeli counterpart triggered criticism has called for coexistence and regional peace during her visit to the Jewish state on Wednesday.

Baghdad-born Sarah Idan, 28, had posted the picture on her Instagram account with her newly made friend, Israel's Adar Gandelsman, during the 2017 Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas.

The outcry in her native Iraq, which does not recognise Israel and is formally at war with it, compelled Idan's family to relocate to the United States, where she had been living.

Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem led by a global Jewish advocacy organisation, Idan called for peace between Iraq and Israel.

"I travelled thousands of miles and put my life in a risk not just to express how so many of us are tired of this endless war between our countries," she said in English, quoted by the American Jewish Committee Global Forum, where she spoke.

Her visit to Israel was aimed at calling for a "new method" to achieve peace, which seeks "reasoning, mutual compromise and... unity", she said, rather than "emphasising our disagreements and implanting hatred".

Addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Idan said she believed both nations "have a right to coexist in this beautiful land", adding she hoped to see Jews and Arabs travelling the region freely and fearlessly.

She told the AJC conference she hoped for "a new chapter for Israel and Palestine, with less blood and more amity".

Idan, who arrived in Israel on Saturday, met with Gandelsman before the conference, posting pictures and videos on her social-media accounts.

A report on Israel's Channel 2 television showed Idan touring Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, where she was warmly welcomed by locals, including Israeli Jews of Arab origin, who spoke with her in Arabic.