Nobel Peace Prize awarded to UN investigator who accused Israel of genocide

Former United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay, who headed a UN commission that accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored the 85-year-old South African jurist on Friday “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.”

“The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack,” the Nobel Committee said in an official statement, praising Pillay for her “exceptional courage and integrity.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry blasted the decision as a “grotesque weaponization of an award,” adding that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels “is certainly applauding from hell.”

“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 Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem wrote on 𝕏.

Pillay has faced sharp criticism from Israeli officials and pro-Israel organizations over her work on the UN commission and its findings concerning Israel.

Anne Herzberg, legal advisor and UN representative for the Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor, accused Pillay of enabling and promoting antisemitism throughout her career at the United Nations.

“At a time when antisemitism is spiraling out of control, it is hardly surprising that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee chose to give this year’s award to Navi Pillay, who in her various UN roles has allowed Jew hatred and demonization of Israel to flourish,” Herzberg said in an interview with The Algemeiner.

Herzberg went on to accuse Pillay of making “egregious antisemitic remarks and repeatedly violat[ing] international fact-finding standards” while heading the UN commission.

“She has whitewashed Hamas terrorism and spread the genocide blood libel,” Herzberg said.

NGO Monitor Founder and President Gerald Steinberg also condemned the decision to award Pillay the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Honoring notorious antisemite Navi Pillay with the Nobel Peace Prize is one more obscene step in the madness. If the committee would have been around in 1492, they would have given the award to Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada. Who is next – Francesca Albanese?” Steinberg told The Algemeiner, referring to the Spanish Inquisition’s first grand inquisitor and UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Albanese, whom critics have accused of antisemitism.

In June 2024, the UN commission led by Pillay accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity in its military campaign following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

“In relation to Israel’s military operations in Gaza from 7 October, the Commission concludes that Israel has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of IHL and IHRL,” the UN report stated.

The 72-page report, released in September 2025, concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, citing evidence of four of the five acts defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention and alleging intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part. “It is that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” Pillay said at the time.

The commission also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog of incitement to genocide.

The Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva rejected the commission’s findings, accusing it of “systematic anti-Israeli discrimination. Herzog also condemned the genocide accusation as a modern antisemitic blood libel, saying that the commission distorted his words.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly stressed that the country’s military campaign in Gaza is directed against the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist organization, not the civilian population. Critics of the UN commission’s findings argue that its conclusions fail to adequately account for Hamas’ use of civilian areas – including hospitals and schools – for military purposes.

In July 2025, Pillay and two other members of the UN commission announced their resignations. “I regret to advise that owing to age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments, I feel compelled to retire as a member of the Commission,” Pillay stated.