Israeli officials are voicing outrage at the Nobel Foundation for honoring former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay with its annual Nobel Peace Prize.
Pillay, 85, presided over the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which ultimately found Israel guilty of committing genocide in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. The Nobel committee selected the South African-born jurist for her work promoting peace and international law, calling her work a “source of hope and inspiration to all those who seek to bring about a more peaceful world.”
That news did not land well in Jerusalem, where various organs of the Israeli government immediately released statements condemning her victory.
“If there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner,” the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said following the announcement. “Her role in the relentless, politically motivated demonization of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE speaks volumes.”
“Awarding Pillay the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t a recognition of justice,” the statement continues. “It’s the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice. Now that the Nobel commission has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell.”
Pillay’s long career in international law has included legal defense for South African activist Nelson Mandela and a stint as a justice on the International Criminal Court. Her selection was announced the same day that President Donald Trump’s administration issued sanctions against the ICC for targeting American officials and citizens — an action alluded to by Pillay in her acceptance speech at the Nuremberg Forum.
“We are living through an era when international law and human rights are under significant political attack,” Pillay said after being informed of her selection. “This worsening reality is particularly visible with the attacks on the International Criminal Court.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office attacked Pillay as a “bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state,” declaring that the “Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass.”
“Navi Pillay’s proudest achievement was to legitimize a corrupt prosecutor who turned to her fabrications against Israel hoping that by joining her bigoted lynch mob, he would beat a rape charge,” the prime minister’s office said Friday, referencing the dismissal of ICC prosecutor Karim Khan earlier this year.
Khan issued the warrants mandating the arrest of Netanyahu in 2024. He was removed from the ICC earlier this year for “serious misconduct” after reports accused him of having nonconsensual sex with a female subordinate.
“Karim Khan, who was accused by his own ICC employees of raping and sexually molesting them, used Pillay’s lies to build a fake case against Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said. “Pillay supplied the lies. Khan weaponized them. And now the misguided members of the Nobel Committee are honoring the woman who propagated this demonization of the Jews and this travesty of justice.”
Pillay has been commended by world leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, among others.
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“For decades, she has been a champion of international law and human rights, and a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “Today’s prize is a tribute to all those working to uphold and defend international law, the rule of law and human rights, and secure peace, justice and human dignity.”
Her selection is likely to land poorly in Washington, given both the State Department’s declared war on the ICC and President Donald Trump’s yearslong campaign to secure the Nobel Peace Prize for himself.
