Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday strongly condemned the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navi Pillay, accusing the Nobel Committee of honoring a figure who has spent years promoting allegations against Israel.
Pillay, a former UN human rights official who has repeatedly criticized Israel, also drew sharp condemnation from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which described the award as an endorsement of anti-Israel prejudice.
"The Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass. It has awarded its highest honor to a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state," Netanyahu said.
The Prime Minister also accused Pillay of providing the foundation for International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan's case against Israel, linking her allegations to accusations of sexual misconduct against Khan.
He added, "Navi Pillay’s proudest achievement was to legitimize a corrupt prosecutor who turned to her fabrications against Israel hoping that by joining her bigoted lynch mob, he would beat a rape charge. Karim Khan, who was accused by his own ICC employees of raping and sexually molesting them, used Pillay’s lies to build a fake case against Israel."
Netanyahu continued his criticism of both Pillay and the Nobel Committee, accusing the former of spreading false allegations and the latter of legitimizing them through the prestigious award.
"Pillay supplied the lies. Khan weaponized them. And now the misguided members of the Nobel Committee are honoring the woman who propagated this demonization of the Jews and this travesty of justice," stated Netanyahu.
Earlier Friday, Israel's Foreign Ministry issued its own statement attacking the decision.
The ministry said that "if there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels," Pillay "wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner."
It pointed to what it described as Pillay's longstanding involvement in the "relentless, politically motivated demonization of Israel and promotion of the 'genoLIE' speaks volumes."
The ministry argued that the Nobel Committee's decision should not be regarded as recognition of Pillay's commitment to justice.
Instead, it declared that the award represented "It’s the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice."
The statement concluded with an unusually severe comparison to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
"Now that the Nobel commission has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell."
Pillay has a lengthy history of public criticism of Israel, including during previous military confrontations with Hamas in Gaza.
In 2014, she accused Israel of "targeting" United Nations-operated schools and hospitals in Gaza. Her criticism did not address the discovery that three UN-run schools had been used to store rockets, a serious violation of international law that could constitute a war crime.
Several weeks earlier, Pillay opened an emergency United Nations debate on Gaza by warning of a "strong possibility" that Israeli military operations violated international law and could amount to war crimes.
She also argued that civilian deaths in Gaza, particularly those involving children, raised questions about whether Israel was taking sufficient precautions and complying with the principle of proportionality.
Pillay's involvement in investigations concerning Israel continued in 2021, when the UN Human Rights Council appointed her to lead a commission examining allegations of “systematic" abuses in Israel and Palestinian Authority territories following another round of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Israel subsequently announced that it would refuse to cooperate with the commission, citing concerns about Pillay's previous statements and positions.
Israeli officials pointed to her endorsement of “the shameful libel" portraying Israel as an apartheid state, as well as her support for the boycott movement targeting Israel.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)