Lebanese Beauty Queen Stripped Of Crown Over Israel Visit

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Lebanese bomb-shell Amanda Hanna is losing her beauty queen title after authorities in the country discovered that she visited Israel using a foreign passport.
“After communicating our decision with Lebanon’s Minister of Tourism, he decided that Hanna should be stripped of her title because her visit to Israel violates our country’s laws,” the group running the Miss Lebanon Emigrant contest told the Al-Modan newspaper in Lebanon.
Hanna, who holds dual citizenship in Lebanon and Sweden, had used her Swedish passport to travel to Israel last year for an academic trip. She later competed in the beauty content, specifically for Lebanese expatriates.
Lebanon, like many Arab countries, has a strict ban on travel to Israel, and has in the past sanctioned those who have violated the travel ban.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
