Israel condemns Nobel Peace Prize for Navi Pillay, accusing her of promoting Gaza “genocide lie” and legitimizing anti-Israel hatred

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has sharply condemned the decision to award the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist and former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, accusing her of promoting what it called the Gaza “genocide lie.” The ministry said honoring Pillay amounted to a “grotesque weaponization” of the Nobel Peace Prize that legitimized “anti-Israel hatred and prejudice,” after the Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized her decades of work promoting peace and international law.

In a statement posted on X, the ministry accused Pillay of participating in the “politically motivated demonization of Israel” and said she would be a frontrunner if there were an award for “lies, hatred and blood libels.” It also described the genocide finding against Israel as “the biggest lie of the 21st century.”

Pillay chaired the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. In September 2025, the commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and said senior Israeli officials had incited genocide. Israel rejected the findings and has repeatedly accused the commission and Pillay of anti-Israel bias.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Pillay the 2026 Peace Prize on Friday “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.” The 85-year-old former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights previously served as a judge at the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she played a significant role in landmark jurisprudence recognizing sexual violence as an act capable of constituting genocide.