Navi Pillay

The United States announced sanctions on the International Criminal Court after former judge Navi Pillay was awarded the prize.

ISRAEL HAS CRITICISED the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to South African human rights lawyer and judge Navi Pillay, claiming that Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels “is certainly applauding from hell”. 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award in Oslo this morning, praising Pillay’s decades of work holding states and political leaders accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Pillay served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and, until recently, chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In 2025, during her time as chair, the UN commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Her win has been widely praised, including by UN secretary-general António Guterres, who called it “a tribute to all those working to uphold and defend international law, the rule of law and human rights”. 

“For decades, she has been a champion of international law and human rights, and a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time,” Guterres said about Pillay.

The chairman of the Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, with a picture of Navi Pillay who will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 at the Nobel Institute. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The Palestinian foreign ministry also welcomed the awarding of the Peace Prize toPillay, saying the recognition honoured “all those who stand firm in defending international law and justice”.

But in a statement released this afternoon, Israel’s foreign ministry said: “If there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner.”

It said her role in what it claimed was the “relentless, politically motivated demonization of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE”, referring to the findings that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, “speaks volumes”. 

The Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass. It has awarded its highest honor to a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state. Navi Pillay’s proudest achievement was to legitimize a corrupt prosecutor who turned to her fabrications against Israel hoping that by joining her bigoted lynch mob, he would beat a rape charge. Karim Khan, who was accused by his own ICC employees of raping and sexually molesting them, used Pillay’s lies to build a fake case against Israel. Pillay supplied the lies. Khan weaponized them. And now the misguided members of the Nobel Committee are honoring the woman who propagated this demonization of the Jews and this travesty of justice.

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 9, 2026

The statement continued: “Awarding Pillay the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t a recognition of justice. It’s the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice.

“Now that the Nobel commission has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Nobel Prize committee of losing its moral compass for the decision. 

“It has awarded its highest honour to a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state,” his office posted on X, claiming she fostered “demonisation of the Jews”.

Netanyahu has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2024, after it said it had reasonable grounds to believe he was responsible for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, the United States imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, vowing to cripple the tribunal’s operations just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize went to former ICC judge Pillay.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington would ban transactions with what he called a “rogue court,” escalating a long-running campaign by US president Donald Trump’s administration against the Hague-based tribunal.

“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said in a statement, which did not mention Pillay or the award. 

He said Trump “will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” adding that the measures would cut off the court’s resources and cripple “its ability to operate.”

Rubio claimed Washington had for more than a year spelled out “basic gestures of good faith” it expected from the court, and had held off on the designation in hopes that the ICC or its member states would change course, but that no “meaningful steps” were taken to address US concerns.

Netanyahu’s office praised the US for the move, stating: “The ICC is not a court. It is a political body that poses a mortal threat to law abiding democracies worldwide and to the very idea of national sovereignty.”

The court rejected the US sanctions as an attack on international law and warned in a statement that “history will judge this moment”.

The Trump administration had previously sanctioned individual ICC officials, including its prosecutor and several judges, over the court’s investigations involving the United States and Israel, which is also not a member.

Trump last month called on all ICC member states to quit the body, denouncing it as “out of control” and a “rogue institution.”

Amazing moment. Navi Pillay has received the Nobel Peace Prize ! https://t.co/HL3r1PJzLO We are at the Nuremberg Court; I cannot think of a stronger symbol for her Nobel prize. We are all so thrilled! This is her first reactions upon hearing the news: https://t.co/Crbj6XdiyQ

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) October 9, 2026

Earlier, Pillay reacted to the news about her prize by making a quip about Trump’s well-documented desire to win the prize himself.

“If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” she said during a standing ovation captured on video by Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard in Nuremberg and posted on the social network X.

Trump has yet to comment on the win directly, but he reshared a post on his Truth Social platform calling Pillay “an unabashed hater of America and Israel” who “has never done a thing to foster peace.”

The European Union called the US sanctions “deeply regrettable” and said it was “ready to take any necessary measures to enable the court to carry out its work”.

The commission said there was “a six-month delay before the measures are applicable,” which it hoped would allow “room for dialogue”.

In a joint statement by their respective foreign ministers, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and the UK also backed the ICC. 

“As committed supporters of the ICC we regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions to be imposed upon the Court by the United States,” the statement said.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk called the sanctions “unacceptable”.

He described them as “the latest in a series of retaliatory steps against the ICC and its personnel for the work they do every day to advance accountability for the very worst violations of human rights”. 

Rights group Amnesty International said Trump’s sanctions “are designed to isolate and ultimately destroy the International Criminal Court”.

“This existential attack must fail. States must take concrete action to resist the imposition of these measures,” Amnesty’s Erika Guevara Rosas said in a statement. 

With reporting from © AFP 2026