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Sunday | October 11, 2026 | Dhaka

Bus driver’s daughter Navi Pillay wins Nobel

 Int'l Desk
 Published: 12:56 AM, 11 October 2026  Updated: 10:15 PM, 10 October 2026

The news of renowned South African jurist and international court judge Navi Pillay winning the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has triggered an unprecedented political and diplomatic uproar in the international arena.

In response to receiving the award, she took a sarcastic swipe at the US leadership, drawing intense resentment and criticism from Washington and Tel Aviv.

Standing in the historic Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg, Germany, after receiving the news of the prize, the 85-year-old judge made a subtle, witty remark hinting at US President Donald Trump’s long-standing desire to win the Nobel Prize.

“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” Pillay said with a smile. Her clever sarcasm has sparked widespread debate across the globe.

However, Washington and Tel Aviv are refusing to accept Pillay’s Nobel victory. Last year, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry led by Navi Pillay submitted a report to the international court explicitly terming Israel’s military operations in Gaza as ‘genocide’.

In reaction, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the award, labeling it a “grotesque weaponisation of an award to legitimise anti-Israel hatred and prejudice”

On the other hand, US President Donald Trump fiercely attacked Navi Pillay on his social media platform ‘Truth Social’, branding her “anti-America and anti-Israel”.

Just hours after the Nobel announcement, the US administration announced fresh, stringent sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC)-an institution deeply tied to Pillay’s legacy-escalating global diplomatic tensions to a peak.

Childhood under apartheid
Navi Pillay (full name: Navanethem Pillay) was born on September 23, 1941, into a poor Tamil immigrant family in the Clairwood slum of Durban, South Africa. Her ancestors had migrated from Tamil Nadu in undivided India during the late 19th century to work as indentured laborers in the sugarcane fields of South Africa.

Pillay’s father was a humble bus driver. The family endured extreme poverty and hardships, raising eight children. She grew up in the dense darkness of apartheid in a household that possessed neither a book nor a newspaper.

Despite qualifying for the University of Natal, the expenses were impossible for Pillay’s impoverished father to bear. Her local community in the Clairwood slum then pooled money, alongside a small church scholarship, to fund her higher education.

Overcoming all social and economic barriers, she remained steadfast in her pursuit of education and went on to establish her own law firm, becoming the first non-white woman lawyer in the Natal province.