Media365
4 min readOct 13, 2026 07:40 PM IST
First published on: Oct 13, 2026 at 07:00 PM IST
The power of the Nobel Peace Prize can often be gauged by how governments read it as a verdict on themselves.
Consider the fury of Germany when Carl von Ossietzky, a journalist jailed for exposing the country’s secret rearmament in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, was awarded the prize in 1935. In 1975, the Soviet Union denounced the award to Andrei Sakharov, a physicist who had helped develop its hydrogen bomb but had become a critic of its repression. Like Ossietzky, Sakharov was barred from travelling to accept the prize. China followed a similar script when Liu Xiaobo, imprisoned for his advocacy of human rights, won the prize in 2010, and froze ties with Norway for years.
Israel’s reaction to this year’s prize warrants a return to these examples. “The Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass,” PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after the award went to Navi Pillay, a former judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”. I read the Nobel Committee’s announcement in full. It does not mention Israel by name, and unlike the above-cited dissidents who were targeted by their own governments, Pillay isn’t even Israeli.
What, then, explains the angry reaction from Israel, and from the United States and its president Donald Trump, who claimed to have “never heard” of Pillay? In September 2025, a UN commission that she was chairing at the time concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces had “committed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. The Committee’s announcement included that commission on Pillay’s list of contributions, and Israel and the US heard the rest for themselves.
Understandably so. By honouring Pillay, the Committee has recognised the validity of an investigation that has placed Israel’s conduct in Gaza under the harshest possible international scrutiny. It has lent legitimacy to the findings that have challenged Israel’s account of its military campaign, which Israel and the US have sought to discredit. And it has affirmed the importance of the institutions and individuals who pursue accountability, even when their findings are unwelcome to powerful states.
Speaking of the powerful, look at Washington’s response. Right after Pillay was honoured, the Trump administration announced new sanctions against the ICC. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would “ban transactions with this rogue court”. This, despite the fact that the ICC and the UN commission that Pillay chaired are separate institutions, and the Nobel Committee’s announcement does not mention the US at all.
The Israeli-American reaction was always likely to seek to discredit Pillay. But if her career demonstrates anything, it is her relentless pursuit of accountability, most famously in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecuting those responsible for the 1994 genocide. She is also serving as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice in the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar over allegations of genocide against the Rohingya. One can hardly be blamed for putting faith in a woman who has a long record of investigating violence by the state, rather than in a government accused of committing violence and one that has armed and funded it.
And perhaps that is the real measure of the Peace Prize. It cannot compel governments to change course, but it can deny them the final word on their own actions. Thanks to Pillay’s work, the world cannot be prevented from considering the evidence of the destruction of Gaza — however furiously the powerful may object.
The writer is copy editor, The Indian Express. saptarshi.basak@expressindia.com
