Israel's ministry rejects the award

While capitals and institutions lined up to congratulate Navi Pillay on the navi pillay nobel peace prize, the Israeli foreign ministry stood apart. In a statement posted on X, it wrote that the award "isn't a recognition of justice. It's the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred".

Why the prize cuts close: the Gaza genocide inquiry

The ministry's anger points to Pillay's most contested work. She chaired the UN Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, a body set up in 2021 that Israel has refused to cooperate with since its creation.

• •A year ago, the commission concluded that Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza, with a specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza; Israel strenuously denies the accusations
• •The commission also found that Israel's president, prime minister and former defence minister "have incited the commission of genocide"
• •Under Pillay's leadership, it issued reports accusing Hamas of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law during its Oct. 7, 2023 attack, and she rejected accusations of anti-Semitism

Asked about Gaza after learning she had won, Pillay said in Germany: "What's happening there is genocide".

Praise from the UN, EU and Pretoria

The tributes came quickly from the bodies where Pillay built her career.

• •UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that "For decades, she has been a champion of international law and human rights, and a steadfast, independent voice of justice"
• •UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk hailed a "particularly poignant" award "at a time when human rights are under attack on so many fronts"
• •EU chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X: "She has looked the brutality of injustice in the eye and never looked away"
• •South African President Cyril Ramaphosa celebrated her contributions to strengthening peace, upholding human dignity and bringing hope in South Africa and among peoples globally
• •Human Rights Watch chief Philippe Bolopion cited her "profound influence" in South Africa, Rwanda and the occupied Palestinian territory, saying that "At a time when international justice is under threat from rights-rejecting leaders, she has been a stalwart proponent of the international rule of law"
• •Hamas official Bassem Naim called the Nobel a message of hope for Palestinians, saying "humanity still resists the forces of evil targeting international justice"

A rebuke aimed at Trump and Netanyahu

The win signals a high-profile rebuke to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have both rejected the findings of the Gaza commission and are critical of the ICJ and ICC.

Pillay knows the court under pressure directly: she served as a judge at the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2008. The Trump administration has since sanctioned 13 of the ICC's staff members, among them key prosecutors and nine judges, including the court's Japanese President Tomoko Akane. Last month, Trump called the court an "out of control institution" and an "anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction" over the US, urging member states to quit.

Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said Pillay's award was a message to those seeking to undermine "the international rules-based system and the institutions". Pillay herself, in a video posted by Amnesty International's secretary general, quipped: "If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump".

She said world leaders have a "legal obligation to protect human rights and refrain from war". Pillay, who learned of the win in Courtroom 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, warned that weakening international criminal justice risks a world where power rather than law determines whose suffering matters.