ANC-International issues statement on Israeli Cabinet’s genocide recognition
On the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the government of Israel
Today, the government of Israel unanimously approved the proposal of the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Sa’ar, to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. According to reports, the draft resolution on recognition will now be submitted to the Knesset for adoption.
In his remarks, the foreign minister noted that similar initiatives had been introduced in the past but had failed to reach their logical conclusion.
The minister also stated that this was not an “act of retaliation” for the open hostility, along with the terrible rhetoric and the hostile actions of Turkey, under Erdogan’s leadership, toward Israel,” presumably referring to the justified assertions of not only by Turkey, rather by the significant part of the international community, that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Considering the fact that numerous Jewish figures spoke out on this issue during the years of the Genocide as eyewitnesses, and later, as intellectuals, politicians and a political party (Meretz), called upon the state of Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Minister Sa’ar is right when he says: “It is never too late to do the right thing. … This is both a moral and historical duty. And in my opinion, there is no strong reason to be avoiding it.”
If and when this initiative reaches its logical conclusion, and the Israeli parliament also approves the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a matter of state policy, we will welcome that position, while at the same time reiterating Minister Sa’ar’s own reasoning addressed to Turkey — that such recognition “does not grant it (in this case, Israel) immunity from historical truths,” including with regard to its complicity in the crimes committed against the Armenian population of Artsakh.
At the same time, we expect that, having recognized the Armenian Genocide, Israel will assume its responsibility by supporting the preservation of its memory and combating its denial.
The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Israel will not be due to moral reasons and empathy (even though genocide is what both peoples have experienced and share), but simply due to the emnity and geopolitical rivalry between Israel and Turkey – to “score points” and to “p##s off” the other side. Simple as that.
Some other countries which have recognized the Armenian Genocide, may have done so not only for moral reasons, but also to win the votes from the ethnic Armenian electorate, where they form a significant voter base. This should not be overlooked.
But Israel’s reason for doing so, is the most cynical and self-serving by far.
I am outraged! Israel has no right to recognize genocide while they are doing the exact same thing!
Pashinyan is furious. He is more turk than the turks.
How can the official recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the state of Israel all of a sudden be an issue of morality today and not of politics after and over three-quarters of a century of the existence of the state of Israel yet Israel’s sense of morality be totally absent only a few years ago recently for arming a Muslim pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani terrorist cesspool to ethnically cleanse Armenians from their homeland and to attempt to commit a second genocide against them with full military participation of terrorist Turkey against whom this Israeli move and newly-found epiphany is all about?
Since its existence, as far as I know, the state of Israel not only has never taken such a hostile stand against Turkey but it has actually helped successive Turkish governments, through its powerful lobby in US and secret agents within the US government, to reject resolution after resolution to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Ever since Turkey’s Islamo-fascist Er-dog-an took power and relations between the two began to sour over the holy land and the Palestinian issues is when Israel started to use the issue of the Armenian Genocide, like a political Ping-Pong, against Er-dog-an’s Turkey hostile to Israel. I think the seizure of the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla headed to the shores of Gaza code-named “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” and the killings of nine or ten Turks by the Israeli Navy on board the ship in 2010 was the main catalyst in major shift in their relations. In the last twenty years, with Turkey under Er-dog-an, Israel has used the Armenian Genocide, in one form or another, and its recognition as a tool to hit back at Turkey when the relations between the two soured and for calling them killer terrorists for their treatment of the Palestinians. But as soon as their relations was on the mend the Armenian Genocide issue was shelved and put on the back burner until their next round of hostilities. I am and have always been very skeptical about their intentions and sincerity!
@Ararat
Absolutely.
Not to mention, when Turkish-Israeli relations were chummy, until their falling out during Erdogan’s Gaza tirade at Davos in 2009, the Israeli lobby “vetoed” the passing of Armenian Genocide resolutions in U.S. Congress, when the first Armenian Genocide resolution was proposed in 1975 until 2009. It took another decade until the Armenian Genocide was finally recognized by U.S. Congress and two years later by the U.S. Presidency, after the Israeli lobby lifted its “veto”. And of course, Biden’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, was not truly based on moral grounds, but to send a message to Erdogan, not to clash with U.S. (and also Israeli) interests in the Middle East and North Africa region.
And let’s not forget the Israeli government’s yearslong, ongoing attempt to expel the Armenians from the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem, and its total disregard for the daily hate crimes perpetuated against Armenian residents by ultra-religious Israeli citizens.
This “proposed recognition” also doesn’t protect the Armenian Lebanese, Syrian, or Iranian populations put at risk by Israeli — and U.S. — bombings and political maneuverings. Nor does it, as you say, make up for decades of institutional genocide denial. When the Armenia Genocide was actually happening, it was front-page news in the New York Times. Today, not all U.S. public school history textbooks even call it a genocide!
This act is so blatantly cynical it makes me sick
It’s all political, Israel which for so long had resisted recognition of the killings as a genocide, although did consider them to be a state sponsered killings , due to its desire to monopolise it’s own genocide and amicable relationship with Turkey. Needless to say it’s relationship with Turkey has soured despite being in cahoots to destroy Arktash. For Israel the holocaust is no longer the unifier or foil against censure and important to the people in the way it had been for decades since 1945 and something wiser Jews warned would come. Thus perhaps it is more relaxed about the holocaust legacy in Israel now is also a factor. Presumably this will allow an improvement in relationships with Israel. Indeed if the relationship between Turkey and Israel continues to sour it would be ironic for Armenia to see and put Azerbaijan in an awkward position. Also with the Gaza desolation, and Turkey taking a sanctimonious position about it, it can serve as a limited deflection against Turkey by Israel. Some Jews had always sought to highlight the issue but others from the era didn’t want to rock the boat regarding the welfare of Jews in the ottoman empire, there had been a view had Turkey not got away with it then perhaps Nazi Germany would have been more cautious and the holocaust not happened or in a much reduced scope although this clashed with those who saw the holocaust as beneficial to the Zionist cause, and the selfish aspect of suffering.
I welcome this recognition, late though it is, and it is more reason for the israelis to stop their murder of Palestinians and Lebanese. If the Armenian Genocide had been acknowledged and dealt with at the time there would be no holocaust or genocide in Gaza.
This is great news!
Bravo, Israel!
@reader
Except that Israel’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not due to any altruistic reasons. As I and others have pointed out in the comment section, it is a calculated foreign policy move by Israel. Other Armenian, and even Israeli, media and commentators have criticized it as a cynical move by the Israeli government.
Amen!
I do not think the Israeli Knesset has approved the recognition . If not, Israel is just playing games against Turkey.
God bless Israel and her people. God bless the Armenian people.
It’s a trap! Do NOT, for even one minute, believe in Israel’s “newly-found” sense of morality or justice – none exists. Do not buy this holier-than-thou lie, not one syllable of it. Oh, and by the way Israel, stop harassing the Armenian Quarter, since you’ve just discovered your own moral sainthood!
Thank you, Armenian Weekly.
However, this must be said.
Where are the apologies, reparations & a full accounting (documents & more) by Israel and the Jewish American lobby for their decades-long denial/diminishment of the Armenian Genocide and their working alongside Turkey to defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions in the US Congress?
Had Armenian organizations and Armenia ever done anything like this regarding the Holocaust … Israel and the Jewish lobby would be demanding our heads on a plate.
Yet we are demanding nothing. Wow.
I simply cannot believe that Armenian Americans and their friends are going to accept what is obviously an insincere and mere “recognition.”
Please read this widely published exposé : Hypocritical Jewish Organizations and the Armenian Genocide:
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2019/06/25/hypocritical-jewish-organizations-and-the-armenian-genocide/
Come on people, where is our courage and where are our organizations?
Thank you Israel.