Nobel committee accused of antisemitism over latest peace prize to ICC judge 

The Nobel committee is under renewed scrutiny from the U.S. and Israel after awarding the 2026 Peace Prize to a controversial activist who accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a former jurist for the International Criminal Court (ICC), “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.”

Pillay also worked for the United Nations, where she found Israel guilty of genocide in Gaza.

“The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what’s happening there as genocide,” Pillay told a crowd celebrating the award at a judicial meeting in Nuremberg, Germany, according to the Nobel Peace Center.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disputed the characterization of Pillay by the Nobel committee.

“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,” said the prime minister via social media.

The award came just two days after the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 and took over 250 hostages.

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim called the Pillay award a message of hope, according to the Associated Press.

Naim added that “humanity still resists the forces of evil targeting international justice.”

“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” Pillay told a crowd, making fun of last year’s award winner, Maria Corina Machado, who said she shared the prize with President Donald Trump.

Iran also celebrated the award.

“Pillay’s Nobel Prize has reignited a global debate over the price of pursuing justice when powerful states shield their illegitimate allies from accountability,” said Iran’s state media, calling the war in Gaza “Israeli-US genocide.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (PMFA), which exercises internationally recognized diplomatic functions but has no governing authority, was also full of praise for the award selection.

“Judge Pillay’s unwavering belief in the universality of law and the equal humanity of all people, including the Palestinian people, reaffirms a fundamental truth: there can be no lasting peace without justice and equality for all,” said a statement by the PMFA.

After receiving confirmation of the award, Pillay appeared at the ICC to defend it against sanctions from the Trump administration.

She said national leaders have a special responsibility to uphold international law.

Every U.S. administration since former President Bill Clinton signed the agreement in 2000 has rejected the ICC treaty, according to the Congressional Research Service.

In fact, Congress refused to endorse it and made it illegal for federal funds to be used to support ICC activities.

In August, the Trump administration called the ICC a “corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate.”

The administration then imposed sanctions on the ICC on the same day the Nobel Prize was awarded to Pillay, noting the U.S. “will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, brick by brick, until Americans are threatened no longer.”

In a video on social media, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Democrats and Republicans have agreed the U.S. never ratified the ICC treaty, so the court has no jurisdiction in America.

“Now globalist experts that are an ocean away…they want to do more,” including prosecuting U.S. soldiers, military leaders, border control and elected political leaders.

Rubio said only Trump had the courage to end the “fake ICC” threat “once and for all.”

Trump called the Pillay award “embarrassing.”

“This is an indelible stain on the ‌country ⁠of Norway and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision,” Trump said, according to Reuters, noting nobody had ever heard of Pillay previously.

“The ⁠Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really ⁠enemies ​of civilization. And we will ​not forget, Norway,” he added.

The Jewish press also condemned the Pillay prize, calling it explicitly antisemitic and an insult in the face of the Oct. 7 anniversary.

Elisha Wiesel, whose father, Elie Wiesel, was a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner who spread a message of peace, called the award to Pillay “The Death of the Nobel Peace Prize.”

“We must always take sides,” Elie Wiesel said in his acceptance speech in 1986. “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”

The younger Wiesel accused Pillay of an anti-Israel bias, noting her UN study distorted the meaning of genocide to condemn Israel while holding it to standards imposed on no other country defending itself against terrorist attacks.

He also pointed to her endorsement of a 2020 manifesto calling for sanctions against what it termed “Apartheid Israel,” and a 2022 controversy in which Berlin’s mayor withdrew support for a peace award honoring Pillay, prompting organizers to cancel the ceremony.

The current head of the World Jewish Congress, former U.S. ambassador to Austria Ronald Lauder, said Pillay’s work “demonizes” Israel and “fuels hostility toward Jews worldwide.”

“Navi Pillay is no diplomat and certainly no peacemaker,” Lauder said. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award her the Peace Prize is a shocking affront to those who oppose antisemitism and defend Jewish life everywhere.”

(Image credit: Screenshot/X/@nobelprize)