Netanyahu calls Nobel laureate Navi Pillay a 'bigot' after prize win

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump sharply criticized the awarding of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge Navi Pillay. Netanyahu called Pillay a 'bigot' and the prize committee 'misguided,' while Trump said he had never heard of her and called the decision a 'disgraceful' stain on Norway. The US imposed sanctions on the ICC hours after the announcement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump sharply criticized the awarding of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge Navi Pillay. Netanyahu called Pillay a 'bigot' and the prize committee 'misguided,' accusing her of building a career around 'inventing and propagating blood libels against the only Jewish state.' The Prime Minister's Office also attacked ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, whom it accused of using Pillay's 'lies' to build a case against Israel. The Foreign Ministry rejected Pillay's genocide allegations as 'the biggest lie of the 21st century.' Trump, speaking at a campaign rally in Syracuse, said he had never heard of Pillay and called the decision a 'disgraceful and embarrassing' stain on Norway. Hours after the Nobel announcement, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the ICC, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the US would cut off the court's resources. Netanyahu commended the sanctions, calling the ICC 'a political body that poses a mortal threat to law-abiding democracies.' The ICC condemned the sanctions as an 'assault on the rule of law.'