Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Nobel Committee of “losing the moral compass” by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navi Pillay, who presided over the UN commission of inquiry that concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
© Angelina Katsanis/Bloomberg via Getty Images
09/10/2026
by
Lusa
Imsael accused the Nobel Committee today of “losing the moral compass” by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navi Pillay, who presided over the UN commission of inquiry that concluded that Tel Aviv commits genocide in Gaza.
“ They awarded their maximum prize to a fanatic who built his career inventing and spreading bloody slanders against the only Jewish state,” said the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a message on social network X.
The message also links Pillay's work with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, who in 2024 requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and against then Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for war crimes and against humanity in Gaza.
According to the Prime Minister’s office, Pillay’s “greatest achievement” was to “legitimate a corrupt prosecutor” who resorted to his “inventions” against Israel in hopes of getting rid of a rape charge. Khan, accused by ICC employees of improper sexual conduct, denied the charges.
“Pillay provided the lies. Khan turned them into a weapon. And now the wrong members of the Nobel Committee honor the woman who has spread this demonization of the Jews and this parody of justice”, he concluded.
Hours earlier, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs also strongly criticized the award on social network X: “If there was a prize for lies, hatred and slander, Navi Pillay would not just be a candidate. It would be the favorite.”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Pillay of playing a role in “the relentless demonisation of Israel with political motivations”, and in promoting what he called “genoment”, a game of words that brings together genocide and lies.
“ Now that the Nobel Committee has awarded the greatest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels will certainly be applauding from hell,” he said.
Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, chaired the International Commission Independent of UN Research on the Occupied Palestinian Territory which, in September 2025, concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly rejected these accusations, as well as those of international and Israeli non-governmental organisations that have reached the same conclusion.
The Israeli offensive against Gaza, which enters its fourth year, caused about 74,250 deaths, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which accounts for 1,471 since the ceasefire came into force on October 11, 2025.