Navi Pillay Wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize as Israel Critics Revive Antisemitism Claims
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 9
Navi Pillay Wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize as Israel Critics Revive Antisemitism Claims
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 9
Summary
85-year-old former U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, immediately drawing denunciations from Jewish advocacy groups and U.N. watchdogs over her record on Israel.
Critics including UN Watch and Human Rights Voices said Pillay had shown anti-Israel bias before and during her leadership of the U.N. commission investigating Israel and the Palestinian territories.
That criticism centers on her signing a 2020 call to sanction Israel, a 2021 letter urging U.S. punishment of Israel, and her defense of commissioner Miloon Kothari after his 2022 "Jewish lobby" remarks.
The Nobel Committee and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres instead praised Pillay's decades-long work on international law, war crimes accountability and human rights, calling her an independent voice for justice.
The award revives a broader split over Pillay's legacy, sharpened after her commission concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza—a finding Israel rejected as politically motivated.