Armenian Genocide, photo from 1915
Photo: Shutterstock
Vote on proposals to recognize Armenian Genocide postponed
Prime Minister Netanyahu asks to postpone discussion at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on two bill proposals calling for Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide; MK Shmuli: 'Netanyahu and his ministers cower ever time Erdoğan makes threats.'
Two bill proposals calling for the State of Israel to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide,
which were scheduled to go to a vote in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, will be postponed at the request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
MK Itzik Shmuli, who sponsored one of the proposals, was furious at the postponement. "Netanyahu and his ministers made declarations like lions but cower ever time (Turkish President) Erdoğan makes threats," he said.
"A day in which the prime minister of the Jewish state agrees to be an active collaborator in the denial of the murder of another people, who were slaughtered in concentration camps and in death marches, is a dark day and a moral stain upon us all," Shmuli charged. "What would we have said if the world refused to recognized the Holocaust because of diplomatic inconvenience and economic interests?"
Armenian Genocide, photo from 1915 (Photo: Shutterstock)
"If we take part in the denial of history's tragedies, we will never succeed in preventing those that might come in the future," Shmuli warned.
"I call on the government to drop the political considerations and make the necessary historical justice," he concluded.
A week and a half ago, the Knesset passed another proposal—by Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg—to recognize the Armenian Genocide with 16 supporting the move, and 10 opposing it in the sparsely-filled chamber.
However, official recognition remains unlikely since it requires the approval of the government.
Unlike 30 other nations that have already officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, Israel had yet to make a decision on the matter. In 2016, the Knesset's Education, Culture, and Sports Committee decided to recognize the genocide and called on the Knesset and government to do so as well.
The Ottoman government's systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly citizens within the Ottoman Empire, took place from 1915 to 1917.
Despite extensive historical research into the Ottoman Turks’ extermination of the Armenian population, Ankara disputes the figure of 1.5 million, insisting that it was significantly lower and arguing that the victims died as part of the civil war rather than a systematic murder program.
For years, the sensitive issue has been a focus of Turkey’s foreign policy, with the country applying pressure on countries to refrain from recognizing it as genocide and imposing sanctions on those who do.
In April 2015, the world marked 100 years since the beginning of what some historians describe as the first holocaust. The same month, Turkey recalled its ambassador from the Vatican after Pope Francis described it as genocide.
