Nobel Laureate Navi Pillay Calls for Netanyahu War Crimes Trial

Navi Pillay, the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, stated on Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should face trial for war crimes. In an interview with Sky News, the 85-year-old South African jurist also criticized U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing him of using rhetoric that could incite violence.

Pillay's remarks come days after she received her prize, an award that Israel has strongly denounced. Pillay, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, previously chaired a UN commission that concluded in 2025 that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, accusations Israel categorically rejects.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her the prize last Friday for her work in peace and international law, sparking significant controversy in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu called Pillay prejudiced, while the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the award as legitimizing hatred and prejudice against Israel, stating that Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels must be "applauding from hell."

Responding to these reactions, Pillay described them as "hurtful and insulting," recalling Goebbels' role in the deaths of many, including Jews and people of color like herself. She reaffirmed her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Despite political obstacles to Netanyahu's potential appearance before the ICC, Pillay expressed confidence that justice would eventually prevail. She also strongly criticized new U.S. sanctions against the ICC, deeming them illegal. Pillay suggested Trump's announcement of these sanctions, shortly after her Nobel Prize win, might be a reaction to his own failure to receive the award, accusing Washington of seeking to undermine an independent international jurisdiction amid U.S. opposition to the ICC's actions against Netanyahu.