Alfred Nobel intended the peace prize for those who had done the most to advance peace among nations.Instead, it is increasingly handed out to the international activist class: people who say the right things, back the right causes and appeal to the political instincts of a handful of parliamentarians in a rarefied progressive bubble.This year’s award to Navi Pillay is a case in point.Pillay is best known for chairing the U.N.
commission of inquiry that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.Her selection will inevitably be read as an endorsement of a U.N.
culture in which hostility to Israel is not a liability but a badge of moral seriousness.NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARDED TO UN JURIST WHO ACCUSED ISRAEL OF COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN GAZAChair 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 Sept.
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)But there is more to Pillay’s record than the commission’s fixation on Israel.When Denmark’s embassy in Pakistan was bombed after Danish newspapers republished the Muhammad cartoons, former Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller reportedly said Pillay’s response was not to defend free speech, but to suggest censorship and restrictions on it.Her reaction to Charlie Hebdo was much the same.
Pillay reportedly called the magazine "doubly irresponsible" for publishing Muhammad cartoons.She is said to have described them as "malicious and deliberately provocative" and said she "fully understands why people wish to protest strongly." When Islamists answer speech with threats, violence and murder, Pillay’s first instinct seems to be to scold those who exercised their...