Navi Pillay, who accused Israel of genocide, wins Nobel Peace Prize

South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, who headed a United Nations commission that accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

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The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award in Oslo, citing Pillay’s decades-long work in international law and human rights.

The committee praised her “extraordinary courage and integrity” in helping advance a more comprehensive international legal order and said she had “played a central role in ensuring that issues such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are brought to justice.”

Pillay, 85, is a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights and has held senior positions in several international judicial bodies.

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Her selection is likely to draw particular attention in Israel because of her recent role as chairwoman of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including eastern Jerusalem, and Israel.

In September 2025, the commission issued a 72-page report concluding that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The report said there were “reasonable grounds” to conclude that four of the five acts defined as genocidal under the 1948 Genocide Convention had been committed since the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The commission cited the killing of members of a group; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

It also accused senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, of incitement to genocide.

Israel categorically rejected the commission’s findings and has repeatedly accused the U.N. investigative body of bias. Jerusalem maintains that its military campaign in Gaza has been directed against Hamas and other terrorist organizations, not the Palestinian civilian population, and says it takes measures to minimize civilian casualties.

The war began when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others to Gaza.

Pillay has also been sharply critical of Israeli policy in Judea and Samaria. She condemned proposals by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to extend Israeli sovereignty over large parts of the territory, as well as plans for construction in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.

Born in Durban, South Africa, in 1941 to a family of Indian Tamil descent, Pillay became the first non-white woman to open her own law practice in South Africa’s Natal Province, working during the apartheid era. She later became the first non-white woman appointed to South Africa’s High Court.

Pillay served as a judge and later president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, established to prosecute those responsible for the 1994 genocide. She subsequently served as a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

From 2008 to 2014, she was the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

She currently serves as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice in proceedings brought by The Gambia against Myanmar over allegations that the latter committed genocide against the Rohingya minority.

Following Friday’s announcement, Pillay drew applause and laughter as she joked about U.S. President Donald Trump, who had also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking at the historic Nuremberg courtroom in Germany, where Nazi leaders were tried after the Second World War, following Friday’s announcement, Pillay referred to her investigation of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“The last thing I did was submit the report on Gaza,” she said, referring to the U.N. commission’s findings accusing Israel of genocide, and drawing applause from supporters.

Pillay then quipped: “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.”

Amazing moment.

Navi Pillay has received the Nobel Peace Prize ! https://t.co/HL3r1PJzLO

We are at the Nuremberg Court; I cannot think of a stronger symbol for her Nobel prize.

We are all so thrilled!

This is her first reactions upon hearing the news: pic.twitter.com/Crbj6XdiyQ

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) October 9, 2026

A video of her remarks was posted on X by Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard.

Pillay’s selection drew sharp criticism from Israeli and Jewish advocates. Michael Dickson, executive director of StandWithUs Israel, responded to the post by Callamard celebrating the award from the Nuremberg courtroom.

“You and her belong in the Nuremberg Court — in the dock,” Dickson wrote on X. “What a stain on the Nobel Prize.”

Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, also slammed the decision and the symbolism of celebrating it at Nuremberg.

“At the Nuremberg Court … I cannot think of a stronger symbol for the devastating collapse of the human rights institutions & principles you were entrusted to uphold & protect, equally & consistently,” she wrote. “Never again is now.”

Cotler-Wunsh described Pillay as having headed a “biased indictment ‘inquiry’ of Israel” and said awarding her the Nobel Peace Prize represented a further “collapse of institutions & principles.”

U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer sharply criticized the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday for awarding the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Pillay.

“We are shocked that the Nobel committee honored Navi Pillay,” Neuer wrote on X, accusing her of a “troubling record on antisemitism” and a “gross breach of ethics” while chairing the U.N. commission investigating Israel.

Neuer argued that Pillay had expressed strong views against Israel before taking charge of the inquiry in 2021, including signing a statement calling for sanctions against Israel. He also criticized her defence of fellow commissioner Miloon Kothari after Kothari referred to a “Jewish lobby” in a 2022 interview.

“By honoring Pillay, the Nobel committee has failed to uphold the principles it seeks to celebrate,” Neuer wrote. “International justice depends on impartiality.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has previously denounced Pillay and her fellow U.N. commissioners as “Hamas proxies,” accusing them of openly antisemitic positions. Responding to their September 2025 report alleging genocide in Gaza, the ministry dismissed its findings as “another fake report about Gaza.”

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded since 1901 under the terms of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s will. Unlike the Nobel prizes in science, literature and economics, which are awarded in Sweden, the peace laureate is selected by a five-member committee appointed by Norway’s parliament.

There were 287 candidates for this year’s prize. The complete list of nominees remains secret for 50 years under Nobel rules.

The prize carries an award of 12 million Swedish kronor, approximately US$1.2 million, and will be formally presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

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