Who is Navi Pillay? Nobel Peace Prize winner's UN record renews fierce antisemitism accusations
The decision to award the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to former U.N.human rights chief Navi Pillay sparked fierce backlash Friday from Jewish advocacy groups and U.N.
watchdogs accusing the South African jurist of longstanding anti-Israel bias and defending antisemitic rhetoric.The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pillay, 85, for her contributions to international law and efforts to hold perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide accountable.But her selection immediately reignited controversies surrounding her leadership of U.N.investigations into Israel, her defense of a fellow commissioner accused of antisemitism and positions she expressed before being appointed to investigate the Jewish state.ICC PROSECUTOR WHOSE NETANYAHU WARRANT FUELED MAMDANI ARREST THREAT IS FIRED OVER SEXUAL MISCONDUCTChair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, South African Judge Navi Pillay speaks during a press conference in Geneva on September 16, 2025.
The Inquiry Commission on September 16, 2025 accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza in a bid to "destroy the Palestinians" there, and blamed Israel's prime minister and other top officials for incitement.(Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)"Navi Pillay is indeed a world leader – an individual at the forefront of the international spread of the poisonous forms of antisemitism that beset the 21st century," Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights, told Fox News Digital.Bayefsky accused Pillay of having "perfected the art of perverting legal and universal standards of human rights to demonize and delegitimize Jewish self-determination." "This award stands as a testament to human wrongs," she added.The Nobel Committee offered a sharply different assessment of Pillay's legacy, praising her lifelong commitment to international justice and describing her caree...