The US President and the Israeli Government have had enough of the Nobel Committee.
On Friday, UN lawyer Navi Pillay was awarded the Peace Prize, and outrage erupted from both sides simultaneously.
At a campaign rally in Syracuse, New York, on Friday evening, Donald Trump dismissed her as follows:
– I’ve never heard of her. Nobody has.
The President called the decision shameful and embarrassing. He believes it is a stain on Norway’s reputation. The prize should have gone to the US, he said, according to CP24.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls the award a grotesque use of the prize as a weapon to legitimise hatred and prejudice against Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the committee has lost its moral compass, and accuses Pillay of prejudice against Jews. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon believes the choice damages the committee’s credibility.
Incidentally, Netanyahu himself nominated Trump for the Peace Prize last summer. He gave him a copy of the letter to the committee during a dinner at the White House.
Pillay is 85 years old and from South Africa. She chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on Israel and the Palestinian territories. Last year, the commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
Israel rejected the report as ‘distorted and false’. The Foreign Ministry said it was based on Hamas lies and demanded that the commission be disbanded.
Another member of the commission, Miloon Kothari, was condemned in 2022 by, amongst others, the US, the UK, France and Canada. This was in response to statements he made about the Jewish lobby and on social media. He himself denied that they were anti-Semitic.
The committee’s chair, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, says that Pillay has contributed to the prosecution of war crimes and genocide.
Trump brokered the ceasefire in Gaza. It was based on his 20-point plan and came into force exactly one year ago. Three days later, Hamas released the last 20 hostages who were still alive. On the same day, Trump gave a speech in the Knesset and received a standing ovation. When one MP shouted at him, the others drowned him out with chants of ‘Trump’.
In August 2025, Trump brought Armenia and Azerbaijan together at the White House, where they signed a peace agreement. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said that Trump had worked a miracle in six months. Congo and Rwanda signed their peace agreement in Washington in December, with Trump as host.
The committee itself has had an embarrassing year. In January, the committee’s secretary, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told Reuters that the name of last year’s winner had probably been leaked through digital espionage. Large sums were bet on María Corina Machado hours before the announcement. The committee does not know who was behind it, and received assistance from one of Norway’s intelligence services in its investigation.
The five-member committee is elected by the Storting, and its composition reflects the relative strength of the political parties.
Machado presented Trump with her gold medal in January. However, the committee has emphasised that the prize money cannot be transferred.
