LONDON: Israel’s prime minister should be prosecuted for war crimes, the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize has said.
Navi Pillay said she is “confident” that Benjamin Netanyahu will eventually face prosecution in the International Criminal Court.
The South African judge, who led the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry, last year found that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
On Friday, after the Nobel win was announced, Netanyahu accused Pillay of being a “bigot,” while Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels would be “applauding from hell.”
In response, Pillay said: “I think it’s very hurtful and insulting. Goebbels had blood on his hands ... responsible for the death of thousands of people; not only Jews, but people of colour like me.”
She conceded that Netanyahu would likely evade ICC charges in the near term because of a lack of political appetite to arrest him.
However, she added: “All my life I’ve seen people get around difficulties, so I’m confident that it will happen.”
Regarding her report that found Israel disproportionately targeted civilians in Gaza, she told Sky News that “our recommendation, our finding, is that the president, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the former minister of defence should be put on trial.
“They should be prosecuted either by national courts or by the International Criminal Court, the most likely international court that would be able to put these individuals on trial.”