South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, who led a United Nations commission that accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized her “efforts to promote peace and international law.”
Her selection honored a figure whose allegations against Israel have drawn fierce criticism from Israeli officials, who accused her commission of promoting a genocide libel and using its international standing to delegitimize the Jewish state.
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In September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry issued a report alleging that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The panel accused senior Israeli leaders of inciting genocide and argued that Israeli military operations and government policies demonstrated an intent to destroy the Palestinian population in the territory.
Israel categorically rejected the findings. Its Foreign Ministry accused the commission of spreading a malicious narrative intended to demonize Israel, relying on selectively presented evidence and making allegations its own material could not substantiate. It called for the commission to be abolished.
President Isaac Herzog also rejected the report, saying it misrepresented his statements. He accused the commission of blaming Israel while whitewashing Hamas’s atrocities, as Israel sought to defend its citizens and secure the return of hostages abducted in the Hamas-led October 7 invasion that resulted in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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The commission is an investigative body rather than a court, and its report was not a judicial ruling. Although established by the UN Human Rights Council, the panel operates independently and does not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
Questions about Pillay’s impartiality predated the Gaza war. In 2022, fellow commissioner Miloon Kothari drew condemnation from Israeli and U.S. officials after invoking a “Jewish lobby” in remarks about efforts to discredit the inquiry and questioning Israel’s UN membership. Pillay defended him, arguing that his comments had been taken out of context and misrepresented. Kothari subsequently apologized for the “Jewish lobby” remark.
Pillay served as UN high commissioner for human rights from 2008 to 2014. Her judicial career included positions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. The Nobel committee cited her decades of work on international justice in explaining its decision.