Noy Ben Arzi. Photo: Facebook.

Israel’s Noy Ben Artzi was crowned Miss Congeniality at the Miss Asia Pacific International pageant held in the Philippines earlier this month.

The Tel Aviv native, 22, was chosen by her fellow 53 competitors to receive the title at the Manila event.

She said about receiving the honor, “In my eyes, this is the most significant award, because I won it by the vote of the other contestants, and to me that means I also have character, and not just beauty.”

According to an Israeli publication, in one segment of the pageant Ben-Artzi requested to walk hand-in-hand with a pageant contestant from Lebanon, but the latter refused to cooperate and the joint walk was cancelled.

Following the competition, Ben-Artzi described on Instagram how “grateful” she was to represent Israel in the pageant.

 

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Once in a life time experience has come to an end and I’m grateful for every moment. It was a pleasure to represent my country, to be a part of a beauty pageant for the first time and to spend this two weeks with the most beautiful ladies from around the world. Thank you @missasiapacificintl for these wonderful memories that will stay with me forever. ❤️ Wearing this amazing dress by the designer @aviadarikherman ??

A post shared by Noy Ben Artzi (@noybenartzi) on Oct 12, 2019 at 4:54am PDT