Trump Reshares Post Calling Nobel Winner Navi Pillay an "Unabashed Hater of America and Israel"

Since the Norwegian Nobel Committee named Navi Pillay the 2026 Peace Prize winner earlier today, Oct. 9, the reaction has moved from Oslo to the White House and Jerusalem. The sanctions on the International Criminal Court that followed hours later are already part of the record. What's new is who is attacking the pick, and in what terms.

Trump joins the pile-on

President Trump reshared a post by David Schoen, his former impeachment lawyer, that calls Pillay an "unabashed hater of America and Israel." The post accuses the Nobel Committee of rewarding Hamas and celebrating terrorists. It calls the U.N. investigation Pillay led into Israel's conduct in Gaza "phony."

The post also defends Trump's own record, citing the Abraham Accords and his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and rebuild Gaza. Trump has openly wanted the prize and has now been passed over for a second consecutive year.

Pillay, 85, had joked about Trump's ambitions while colleagues congratulated her. "If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump," she said, and the room laughed.

Israel's response

The Israeli Foreign Ministry went further than most governments would. "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. The same statement invoked Joseph Goebbels.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the Nobel panel "has lost its moral compass" and honored "a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state."

The prime minister's office also made a claim about ICC prosecutor Karim Khan. It said Khan was accused by his own employees of sexual misconduct, and that he used Pillay's work to build a case against Israel to deflect from that. That is Netanyahu's office's allegation. Nothing in the record shows Pillay and Khan coordinating on any such case.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, said he was "shocked." He pointed to Pillay's acceptance in July 2021 of the chair of a Pakistani-sponsored U.N. commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli crimes. His argument is that fact-finders must be impartial, and that Pillay had publicly pronounced on the underlying issues before she took the job.

What the Nobel Committee and her defenders say

The committee called Pillay a legal pioneer with "exceptional courage and integrity" who has "led the way toward a more comprehensive global legal order." It said it chose her because "institutions of international law are under political attack." It also highlighted her work to ensure war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.

Her résumé is not in dispute. She was born in Durban under apartheid, of Indian Tamil descent, and defended Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists early in her career. She later served as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and as a judge on the Rwanda tribunal and the ICC. She now sits as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice.

Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, told PBS her rise from the apartheid system to the top of the global legal profession "should be inspirational to every person that lives in the Global South."

The Gaza finding is the flashpoint. The commission Pillay chaired concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has rejected that conclusion and the commission's work.

The sanctions backdrop

The timing is what fused the two stories. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced full blocking sanctions on the ICC the same day, saying "the United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC." Pillay is a former ICC judge, and the Hill reports she oversaw the U.N. report that concluded Israel committed genocide.

ICC President Tomoko Akane, who was personally sanctioned by the Trump administration in August, said the court "will continue to fully discharge its mandate." The court also asked its member states to help ensure "the continuity and resilience of its activities."

Treasury has issued a 180-day general license so U.S. persons and entities can wind down dealings with the court. That clock runs out in roughly six months. By then the ICC's member states will have shown whether they will back its operations, as the court asked.