From Abu Samir's Donkey to the Nobel Peace Prize: The Story of Navi Pillay and Delayed Justice

South African judge Navi Pillay wins the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of her efforts to promote peace and international law and hold war criminals accountable. The article links her career to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and her work on the international investigation into Palestine, recalling her 2011 visit to the home of citizen Sabri Gharib in Beit Ijza, where his son asked for a donkey to help transport the family's needs and plow his land.

South African judge Navi Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of her efforts to promote peace and international law, and for her role in developing the international justice system and holding perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide accountable. The prize gains additional significance given her career confronting the apartheid system in South Africa, her work as a judge in international courts, her tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and her chairmanship of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory between 2021 and 2025, which concluded in its 2025 report that Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip. The article recalls her 2011 visit to the home of citizen Sabri Gharib in the town of Beit Ijza, where his son asked for a donkey to help transport the family's needs and plow his land, a scene that encapsulates the suffering of Palestinians under occupation.