Middle East Times, Egypt
Sept 21 2005

Beauty to the fore at Israeli-Palestinian pageant in East Jerusalem
September 21, 2005

Photo: BEAUTIES: Israeli and Palestinian girls participate in the
‘Miss Seam Line’ beauty pageant in the Israeli neighborhood of Gilo
near Jerusalem on September 20. The contest is meant to bring
together girls from both sides of the controversial Israeli barriers
buffer zone.
(REUTERS)

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian teenager walked off with the tiara at a
groundbreaking Israeli-Palestinian beauty pageant held in East
Jerusalem on Tuesday.

The pageant, with 20 young women and girls taking part, was being
held for the second straight year. It is the brainchild of Adi Nadar,
a resident of the Jewish settlement of Gilo in annexed East
Jerusalem.

The area is frequently the target of automatic arms fire from the
neighboring Palestinian town of Beit Jallah in the West Bank.

“We were looking for a way to forget our mutual suffering and our
distrust, by avoiding sport and politics, and we thought about beauty
and women were the best way to bring us closer together,” said Nadar,
who heads a Jerusalem residents association for peace.

The five judges considered the competing merits of 17 young Israelis,
an East Jerusalem Palestinian of Armenian origin and two other
Palestinians from Beit Jallah.

It was one of these last two, Shira Marie Farah, a 17-year-old with
chestnut brown hair, who was declared the winner following the parade
of evening dresses and swimsuits in a Gilo school, accompanied by the
music of Abdel Hakim Hafez, one of the biggest stars of Arab music.

In a rare show of Middle East harmony the Israeli contestants draped
themselves in the Palestinian flag, and vice-versa.

The winner received an air ticket to Paris and invitations from
several major fashion houses.

“It was wonderful to see these young girls together, like a family
… Before the pageant they went together to the Dead Sea and to the
Ramat Rahel kibbutz,” in the Jerusalem area, said makeup artist
Claire Skafie.

“Of course, I entered the contest hoping to be crowned the winner,”
said 19-year-old Eliane, another Palestinian contestant who works in
an East Jerusalem hairdressers. “But for me the important thing is to
meet up with my Israeli friends.”

“What I won tonight was that our neighbors in Gilo have become our
friends,” said fellow Palestinian hopeful Christine, aged just 14.

There was the same enthusiasm among the Israeli girls.

“This contest allows me to get to know my neighbors, and I like them
a lot,” said Tali Cohen, 17.

“I hope to become a professional model but in any case, this contest
allows us to discover each other,” echoed 15-year-old Hodaya Mizrahi.

Several Israeli Labor deputies, including Danny Yatom and Colette
Avital, attended the event.

Israeli singer Koby Shai was also in the enthusiastic crowd.

“I hope that next year I might be able to sing in the Arab world,” he
said.