'This is not freeing Palestine, this is terrorism,' says former Miss Iraq on solidarity visit to Israel; tours devastated Gaza border communities

The former Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan, who is also a 2024 United States congressional election candidate, made a solidarity visit to Israel, where she toured some of the Israeli communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip border that were devastated during the surprise invasion and massacres committed by the Hamas terror organization on Oct. 7.

The former Iraqi beauty pageant winner stressed that the destruction of entire Israeli communities was not about “Free Palestine.”

“I want them to see the horror that caused the war on Gaza. The world is shouting ‘Free Palestine’ and it was never about freeing Palestine. This is not about freeing Palestine – killing innocent families and burning them alive. This is not freeing Palestine, this is terrorism,” Idan told Israel's Channel 12 news.

Idan, who views herself as a secular Muslim and is a strong Israel supporter, faced a backlash from her native Iraq in 2017 after she had posted a selfie with then-Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas. Idan and her family moved to the United States that same year.

I don’t care what’s your religion if your God permits you to do this in his name then your God is wrong. My mind is still traumatized by the scene, the smell of the dead bodies. Shame on those pretending the massacre didn’t happen. pic.twitter.com/4ELXTwgA68

— Sarai (Sarah Idan) Miss Iraq (@RealSarahIdan) December 28, 2023

In 2019, the Iraqi regime revoked Idan's Iraqi citizenship.

She compares Israel’s fight against Hamas with the American-Iraqi fight against a local Iraqi Hamas Jihadist organization in 2008 when she worked as a translator for the American forces.

“So us, the US military, and the Iraqi military were fighting [Iraqi] Hamas together. Tell me, if Hamas were trying to free Iraq, why were they trying to hinder the process of Iraqis establishing their own government and becoming independent?” Idan wrote on X, former Twitter.

“Here, it’s exactly the same war, the same enemies,” she said during her recent visit to the Jewish state.

Idan is concerned about the strong anti-Israel sentiments among the radical left in America. The former Miss Iraq, who is running as a Democrat in a California district, hopes to become “the anti-squad,” referring to a group of far-leftist anti-Israel Democrat lawmakers that include Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).

Idan emphasized that the fight against Iranian-led Jihadist terrorism is about much more than the current Hamas-Israel war in Gaza.

“It’s not just about Israel. My Iraq is already lost. I lost my Iraq to the Iranian regime and to the radical Islamists and I could never live there. So the U.S. is my only home and I need to protect my home and sadly, The Squad, when it comes to the Middle East, I feel like they have no experience, they’re being told what to say,” the former Miss Iraq stated.

pic.twitter.com/32wJA3ms9o

— Sarai (Sarah Idan) Miss Iraq (@RealSarahIdan) December 28, 2023

In 2019, she dismissed the notion that the Arab-Israeli conflict was rooted in political disagreements. Instead, Idan emphasized that the hostility towards the Jewish state is “deeply rooted in the belief systems taught in Muslim countries, which are antisemitic.”

During her visit to Israel, Idan was particularly moved when she saw the family home of the U.S.-Israeli Idan family in Kibbutz Kfar Aza close to the Gaza Strip border.

“That’s the Idan family? Like I-D-A-N? That’s my last name,” she said.

In late November, four-year-old Avigail Idan was released from captivity in Gaza. Hamas terrorists murdered the young child’s parents, Roi and Smadar, while the older siblings Michael (8) and Amalya (6) succeeded in hiding in a closet for 14 hours in their family home.