Who is Navi Pillay?Nobel Peace Prize winner’s UN record renews fierce antisemitism accusations

A view of the rostrum where the Nobel Committee’s chairman, Jørgen Watne Frydnes will announce the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025, in Oslo Oct.10, 2025.(Rodrigo Freitas/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Another controversy erupted in 2022 when fellow commissioner Miloon Kothari suggested that social media criticism of the investigation was controlled by the “Jewish lobby” andquestioned Israel’s U.N.membership.

The remarks were condemned by U.S.officials, including then-State Departmentantisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt.Pillay defended Kothari, arguing his comments had been taken out of context.Kothari subsequently apologized, calling his language inappropriate and insensitive.

Read More → 4 simple habits can help slow muscle loss as you age, fitness expert says

The controversy also reached Germany, where Berlin’s mayor withdrew support for a planned event honoring Pillay in 2022, and the event was canceled, according toThe Times of Israel.

Bayefsky also recalled the2009 U.N.anti-racism conferencein Geneva, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered an inflammatory speech attacking Israel.While Western diplomats walked out, Pillay remained seated.

Read More → Woman’s routine Uber ride takes alarming turn after her driver misses the exit

However, Pillay subsequently condemned his address, saying she joined the secretary-general in “utterly deploring the speech,” according to theU.N.’s official transcript.

“Her after-the-fact denunciation was utterly disingenuous.” Bayefsky claimed, “Pillay had been given Ahmadinejad’s speech, questioning the veracity of the Holocaust and talking about the “ugly faces” of Zionists, in advance and yet still handed him the microphone as Conference Secretary-General.”

The Nobel Committee, meanwhile, defended Pillay’s legacy, crediting her with strengthening international law at a time when the institutions responsible for enforcing it face increasing political pressure.

Pillay’s selection highlights the divide between supporters who celebrate her contributions to international justice and critics who contend that her record on Israel undermines the universal human rights principles she championed.

onelink.me/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.

Navi Pillay, who won the Nobel Peace Prize Oct.9, 2026, speaks during a briefing to U.N.member states about ongoing investigations of the Commission at the U.N.offices in Geneva April 16, 2024.(Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)

�t receive one in time for publication.

com/category/world/conflicts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability. She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events. 

Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa.Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting thewar in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders.She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition.Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting.She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s degree in political science.