President Trump re-posted a scathing statement Friday denouncing Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay — after he was snubbed from receiving the award for the second-straight year — noting that the former United Nations official had accused Israel of genocide.
“Today the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay. Pillay is an unabashed hater of America and Israel,” the reposted statement from the Alabama and Georgia-based Schoen Law Firm said.
“In her position she celebrated terrorists and rewarded Hamas. She conducted a phony ‘investigation’ claiming to find that Israel committed genocide and urging prosecution. She has no credibility in any normal sphere and has never done a thing to foster peace. Just the opposite. But what could be expected from a committee that previously gave the once coveted peace prize to Yasser Arafat?”
President Donald J. Trump speaks during an announcement in the Oval Office of the White House.
President Donald J. Trump speaks during an announcement on Trump Accounts in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, October 7, 2026.
Trump had yet to comment in his own words on the selection — after saying for years that the panel should pick him for his role in mediating world conflicts.
The five-person Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pillay for her “role as a driving force in the development of an international system of law and order.”
“An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world,” the panel wrote.
Pillay, a South Africa-born lawyer of Indian heritage, led the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory between 2021 and 2025.
South African lawyer Navi Pillay holds flowers during a press conference.
South African lawyer Navi Pillay, right, holds flowers during a press conference at the International Nuremberg Principles Academy in Nuremberg, Germany, Friday, October 9, 2026. Pillay, a human rights defender and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
In September 2025, the panel assessed that Israel committed genocide during the Gaza war against Hamas.
The Israeli foreign ministry ripped Pillay’s award, saying in a statement that “[Nazi propaganda chief] Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell.”
“If there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner,” the ministry said.
“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.”
Pillay, 85, previously served as a judge on the International Criminal Court between 2003 and 2008 and previously led the tribunal investigating the 1994 Rwanda genocide tribunal.
The US State Department announced sanctions against 17 people linked to the ICC mere hours after the award was announced, saying it was necessary to “protect U.S. interests.”
Trump has attacked the ICC as a threat to US service members and leaders and argues it lacks any inherent authority over military actions.
Trump said Wednesday that he doubted he would get the award because “they have a reputation for maybe not giving it to people like me,” but reveled in the fact that last year’s honoree, Maria Corina Machado, gave him her medal.
“I was very honored to receive it indirectly last time by the recipient who said nobody in history deserves it more than President Trump. And since then, we’ve done a lot,” said Trump, who brokered a series of peace deals last year before launching the Iran war in February.
Unlike Machado, Pillay has expressed no interest in gifting her prize to Trump.