Israel blasts Nobel Peace Prize award to Navi Pillay over Gaza genocide probe
Israel has condemned the decision to award Navanethem Navi Pillay the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
In a statement on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Ms Pillay of spreading “blood libels” against Israel, claiming she helped legitimise a “fake case” against the country at the International Criminal Court.
“The Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass,” Mr Netanyahu stated. “It has awarded its highest honour to a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday announced Ms Pillay, a South African lawyer who once served as a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as the winner of the coveted prize.
The Nobel Committee’s chair, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, recognised Ms Pillay “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”.
However, Mr Netanyahu, who accused Ms Pillay of fabricating lies against Israel, noted that her “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”.
According to him, Karim Khan, who was accused by his own ICC employees of raping and sexually molesting them, used Ms Pillay’s lies to build a fake case against Israel.
Mr Netanyahu insisted that Ms Pillay supplied the lies while Khan, a British lawyer who served as prosecutor of the ICC from 2021 to 2026, weaponised 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,” he added.
Mr Netanyahu’s condemnation came amid an ongoing rift between Israel and global institutions over the war in Gaza.
Last year, an expert panel commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council and led by Ms Pillay concluded its findings and established that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
The ICC had also issued an arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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