Israeli officials launched a sharp rebuke against the decision to award the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to veteran South African jurist Navi Pillay, accusing the Norwegian Nobel Committee of legitimizing anti-Israel hostility.
The backlash follows Friday’s announcement honoring the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for her decades-long advocacy for international law and human rights.
Israeli authorities condemned the accolade, asserting that rewarding Pillay’s body of work normalizes systemic bias against the Jewish stapte.
In a post on social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Pillay receiving the prizes, saying the Nobel Peace Prize committee “has lost its moral compass.”
“It has awarded its highest honor to a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state,” Netanyahu added.
Pillay’s tenure has long drawn criticism from Jerusalem, particularly during her leadership of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry investigating allegations of international law violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.
Tel Aviv has repeatedly accused international bodies and UN-appointed panels of operating with an institutional bias against Israel.
