Nadeen Ayoub, who made history last year as the first Palestinian woman to compete at Miss Universe, will help select her successor as applications open for Miss Palestine 2026.
The Miss Palestine Organisation has announced its first national competition in recent history, inviting Palestinian women aged 18 to 35 living in Palestine and across the diaspora to apply.
Ayoub will host the competition under the theme Beauty Beyond Borders. The organisation says the programme will combine traditional elements of pageantry with mentorship, leadership development and cultural representation.
Final casting will take place in Palestine and Jordan, before a grand finale in Jordan in October.
The winner is expected to represent Palestine at the 75th Miss Universe pageant, which will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in November. The diamond jubilee edition will be staged at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot indoor arena, marking the competition's return to the island after 23 years.
“Miss Palestine is more than a title. It is a platform for Palestinian women to be seen, heard and supported, to represent our identity with confidence, share our talents with the world and create impact beyond the stage,” Ayoub said while announcing the competition.
The new competition comes a year after Ayoub became the first Palestinian to take part in Miss Universe.
'I feel a huge responsibility'
Crowned Miss Palestine in 2022, albeit without a formal competition, she first represented her country internationally at Miss Earth that year, where she finished among the top five finalists. She later put her plans to compete at Miss Universe on hold after the war in Gaza began in 2023.
“There hasn't been another Miss Palestine since 2022 because of the genocide,” Ayoub told The National in an interview last year.
“After Miss Earth, I was supposed to go to Miss Universe. But I postponed it because I did not want to go when genocide was happening. I wanted to focus more on staying behind the scenes because the spotlight was supposed to be on the people in Palestine who are suffering, rather than me.”
Ayoub eventually decided to compete in 2025, saying the worsening humanitarian situation had convinced her of the importance of Palestinian representation on international platforms.
“When you have that power, you have a responsibility to speak out. And I feel a huge responsibility,” she told The National before the competition.
“Miss Universe is a huge platform, and there's a big responsibility in speaking out about what's happening in Gaza. No one should be silent about the injustice that's happening. This is the time when Palestine needs to be represented on all platforms everywhere.”
Ayoub went on to reach the top 30 at Miss Universe 2025 in Thailand, becoming the only Arab contestant to progress to that stage. Mexico's Fatima Bosch eventually won the crown.
A certified wellness and nutrition coach with a degree in literature and psychology, Ayoub was raised between Palestine, the US and Canada. She splits her time between Ramallah, Amman and Dubai, where she founded Olive Green Academy, an organisation focused on sustainability education.
The Miss Palestine Organisation says the 2026 contest will be open to Palestinian women around the world, with contestants offered mentorship and leadership development alongside the traditional competition.
It is also seeking sponsors and partnerships with brands, NGOs, cultural institutions and media organisations to support the programme.
For Ayoub, selecting a successor marks another step in building the platform she said was largely absent when she first entered international pageantry.
“When we went to Miss Earth, it was almost like a one-woman show,” she previously told The National. “I didn't have a big agency behind me, so I had to really work hard and prepare myself because we lack these tools in Palestine.”
