Decision to honor Navi Pillay rewards decades of anti-Israel bias and political advocacy masquerading as human rights.
New York, NY — Betsy Berns Korn, Chair, and William C. Daroff, CEO, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, issued the following statement:
“We strongly condemn the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s disgraceful decision to award the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay. The Committee turned a prize meant to honor peacemakers into a platform for those who demonize the Jewish state. By honoring Pillay, it lent the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize to a longstanding campaign of prejudice and political warfare against Israel.
“Pillay’s record speaks for itself. She championed the discredited Durban process, promoted boycotts and sanctions against Israel, and defended a fellow UN commissioner who invoked antisemitic tropes about a ‘Jewish lobby’ and questioned Israel’s very membership in the United Nations. She dismissed concerns about antisemitism within her commission as a diversion while denying positions on BDS that she previously advocated. Pillay is not an impartial defender of human rights. She is a polemicist and ideologue whose hostility toward Israel repeatedly took precedence over fairness, objectivity, and truth.
“Pillay helped transform the ancient blood libel into a modern accusation of genocide against the Jewish state. Her commission twisted the language of human rights into a weapon of political warfare, trivializing the crime of genocide while demonizing Israel. The Nobel Committee gave the genocide blood libel a Nobel Peace Prize. Rather than reward a peacemaker, it rewarded a purveyor of prejudice.
“This decision is more than an affront to Israel and the Jewish people. It strikes at the credibility of international institutions and the universal principles they claim to uphold. When prejudice becomes a qualification for international recognition, the institutions charged with defending human rights become instruments of injustice. The damage extends far beyond Israel, undermining public confidence and betraying genuine victims of persecution around the world.
“The Nobel Peace Prize should be a beacon of moral clarity, not a medal for political prejudice. By rewarding Pillay’s record of bias and ideological advocacy, the Nobel Committee diminished the legacy of the prize and betrayed the principles it was established to honor.”
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The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is the recognized central coordinating body representing 50 national Jewish organizations on issues of national and international concern. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions of all member organizations.
