Knesset speaker withdraws Armenian Genocide recognition from parliament agenda

May 28, 2018 By administrator

The expected vote on recognizing the Armenian Genocide was not on the Knesset’s agenda for this week as of Monday, JPost reported.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein withdrew the item from the agenda, his spokeswoman said, to avoid an embarrassment to the Knesset, because it was unclear there would be a majority in favor. Edelstein has repeatedly voiced his support for recognition over the years, including last week.

The vote on recognizing the Armenian Genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, was set for Tuesday, after a motion to do so by Meretz chairwoman MK Tamar Zandberg was approved.

Zandberg accused Edelstein of putting politics ahead of morality, dismissing the Knesset Speaker’s words in favor of her motion.

“Holding this debate, with a historic vote to recognize, is the right thing to do. Some preferred politics to doing the right thing,”
Zandberg said at a Meretz faction meeting Monday. “The Knesset should do what it promised. This is a matter of historic justice.”

Recognizing the Armenian Genocide has the potential to anger Turkey and Azerbaijan. Tensions between Israel and Turkey are already high, with the countries withdrawing their ambassadors after Turkey supported Hamas when the terrorist organization tried to violently break through the Gaza border into Israel earlier this month.

However, Israel and Azerbaijan have warm ties, and the latter’s proximity to Iran makes it a strategic ally, important to Israeli security.

Azerbaijan is in an ongoing conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Zandberg, however, said that should not be taken into consideration.

Recognizing the Armenian Genocide, she argued, “shouldn’t hurt ties with any country. This is a basic moral issue…. We, the Jewish people, know the value of recognizing national tragedies.”

Knesset doesn’t shy away from Armenian Genocide after Turkey deal

July 6, 2016 By administrator

“We must disconnect current interests from the past; we cannot remain apathetic,” Edelstein says.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and other MKs called for the government to recognize the Armenian Genocide on Tuesday, despite recently signing an agreement improving relations with Turkey.

“We cannot ignore, dwarf or deny this terrible genocide,” Edelstein stated. “We must disconnect current interests of this time and place from the difficult past.”

Edelstein quoted Nobel Prize-winning author, philosopher and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who died on Saturday, as saying apathy to suffering helps the enemy.
“We cannot remain apathetic, even if it’s late, to the suffering the Armenians experienced,” said Edelstein. “Recognizing the Armenian genocide is important to us as human beings who carry the moral responsibility, and constantly hope to improve the world and society.”

Meretz chairwoman Zehava Gal- On, who initiated the discussion, also quoted Wiesel, in an open letter his foundation published in 2007 calling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

“Children and grandchildren of survivors must know what genocide looks like and how one tragedy turned into another giant one,” she said. “But here, in the Knesset, the elected parliament of the state in which the memory of the Holocaust is constant, and ‘never forget’ is a moral commandment, we haven’t heard about it.”

Gal-On said that despite the agreement with Turkey, Israel must recognize it.

“This is a decision Israel must make,” she stated. “Sometimes there is a price to doing the right thing, and sometimes the right choice is not the easy one. We are tested when we have to pay a price.”

Minister without portfolio Tzachi Hanegbi presented the government’s position, saying he understands the emotions behind the MKs’ speeches. But he did not use the Hebrew phrase for “genocide,” simply saying “tragic events.”

The MKs present approved Gal- On’s motion to the agenda, and the discussion will be moved to the Knesset Education Committee.

Meanwhile outside the Knesset, more than 50 people rallied for the same cause. Protesters lined the gate separating the Wohl Rose Park of Jerusalem from the Knesset holding placards reading “Recognize the Armenian Genocide,” and “Fight to stop the Turkish Denial Machine.”

Many countries have debated whether what happened in 1915 can qualify as a “genocide” – 29 countries and groups including the United Nations, the Catholic Church and the Anti-Defamation League say yes, Israel and Turkey say no.

Apo Sahagian, an Armenian Israeli whose family immigrated to Israel in 1921 following the genocide, was part of the group that planned the event. He was not optimistic that it would work.

“This is just to make sure that the people inside, the suits inside, are reminded that they still have a moral obligation, that they don’t simply avoid it or turn a blind eye to it,” he said.

Israel: Armenian Genocide to be discussed during Knesset plenum

July 4, 2016 By administrator

armenian genocide Knesset The debate on Armenian Genocide is included in the agenda of Knesset, representative of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“This time the Armenian Genocide will be discussed during the plenum on July 5. During last year’s debates in the education committee, the chairman of the committee presented proposals to the government to recognize the Armenian Genocide and include the issue in the curriculum,” Fr. Koryun said.

The Armenian community and Israelis demanding recognition of the Armenian Genocide will stage an action during the debates in Knesset.

The website of the Knesset says describes the debate as “Marking Armenian Genocide Day”.

Yair Auron: Knesset to hold debate on Armenian Genocide on July 5

June 29, 2016 By administrator

genocide israel Israel’s Knesset will hold debate on the Armenia Genocide on July 5 a month after Bundestag adopted resolution recognizing the Genocide, Dr. Yair Auron, an Israeli historian said in an interview with the Zoryan Institute .

“Israel refrained from allowing a public debate to have a free vote on the subject of the Armenian Genocide for fear of alienating the Turkish government, a key ally to Israel and the United States,” Auron believes.

The historian does not agree with the opinion on the uniqueness of the Holocaust.

“I cannot accept that because the Holocaust is not unique, and needs to be studied as one example of genocide and not in isolation. Israel, a state born out of the Holocaust, is expected not to barter with the memory of the genocide of another people,” he added.

Auron noted that American presidents avoid using the word genocide, but Israel has gone even further: not only denying the status of the Armenian Genocide, but honouring the tragic killing of a small group of Azerbaijanis at Khojaly during the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at a commemoration in 1915, ‘We are gathered here today to talk about the necessity to combine the experience of Israel and Azerbaijan in order to prevent such tragedies in the future.’

The historian called on Knesset to have a free vote on whether or not to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

“Now that Israel and Turkey have mended fences and are about to renew their diplomatic ties, the Knesset must give a clear message that Israel’s relations cannot be held hostage to Turkey’s denial of these incontestable historical facts, especially after Germany’s admittance of its complicity, as an ally of Ottoman Turkey. It should further emphasise that Armenian Genocide recognition by Israel is not about friendship or enmity towards Turkey, but it is rather a moral responsibility of Israel. Furthermore, after Germany’s admittance of complicity, the failure of the Israeli Knesset to openly label the ‘events of 1915’ as ‘genocide’ is no longer only a simple moral issue, it is also a matter of credibility,” he resumed.

Israel: Knesset speaker expects coalition and opposition to unite on Armenian Genocide

July 15, 2015 By administrator

Speaker of Israel’s Knesset Yuli Edelstein expects that coalition and opposition will come together to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

He is hopeful that the Knesset will do it officially soon, The Jerusalem Post reported.

At the same time Edelstein added that the decision has nothing to do with flexing muscles at Turkey, while the move is not coordinated with the Israeli government.

“The Armenians are not our greatest friends. They n ever vote with us in the UN. I don’t expect anything in return; this is not a political decision,” he explained.

The Jerusalem Post: Knesset Speaker calls to rethink Israel’s stance on Armenian genocide

May 12, 2015 By administrator

Yuli Edelstein

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Tuesday called to rethink Israel’s stance on the Armenian genocide, calling the murders a “moral stain” on humanity.”

“History cannot be changed,” he said during a speech in the Knesset. “The disaster can’t be obscured by diplomacy anymore.”

Armenia recently marked the centenary of a mass killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, at the height of World War I.

“It is no secret that Israel has taken an ambivalent position about the genocide,” Edelstein said, calling Israel’s reaction “too hesitant and too restrained.”

“As the Jewish people, we cannot stay silent,” he addressed MKs in the plenum. “We cannot turn a blind eye or lessen the extent of the Armenian tragedy,”

Israel Knesset discusses Armenian Genocide recognition

May 14, 2014 By administrator

May 14, 2014 | 13:01

The Knesset plenum held a special session on Tuesday to discuss the Armenian Genocide, this following a motion to the agenda by MK Zahava Gal-On ( calling for the government to recognize the genocide, which is attributed to the Ottoman Turks, before its 100th anniversary next year, Knesset press service reported.

During the session, Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein mentioned that during his tenure as a minister he laid a wreath at the memorial dedicated to the victims of the genocide of 1915, which was built on the hill of Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan, Armenia, and expressed his stance regarding ”the need to remember the massacre of the Armenian people.”

The discussion at the Knesset ”does not blame any modern country, rather it shows that we identify with the victims of the massacre and its terrible outcome,” Edelstein said, adding ”we are not placing blame; we are acting like Jews and being faithful to the truth and the suffering of another people. We cannot deny history and hold back human values out of diplomatic or political caution.”

MK Gal-On told the plenary session, ”Next year the world will mark 100 years since the massacre, and it is time that the government of Israel recognize the massacre of the Armenian people. This recognition is not an attempt to foilur relations with Turkey, which are very important for the State of Israel.”

”The government should not sacrifice the recognition in the name of temporary interests,” the Meretz leader continued. ”Every time there’s a different diplomatic situation. When we’re for relations with Turkey, we don’t recognize the genocide and then there’s the Marmara [Turkish Gaza protest ship in 2010] and we change our mind.”

”Many of those who are sitting in the Knesset plenum are second-generation Holocaust survivors. As a nation that experienced the Holocaust, we cannot continue to ignore the Armenian genocide because of irrelevant considerations,” she said.

MK Reuven Rivlin said, ”We the Jews were next in line after the Armenians [to be killed]. Whoever thought of the Final Solution got the impression that, when the day comes, the world will be silent, as it was about the Armenians. It is hard for me to forgive other nations for ignoring our tragedy and we cannot ignore another nation’s tragedy. That is our moral obligation as people and Jews.”

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau responded to the motion on behalf of Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, saying that ”as Jews and Israelis, we have a special sensitivity and even a moral obligation to recognize human tragedies, including the Armenian genocide.”

“It is a good thing that the Knesset marks these tragedies. The State of Israel never denied what happened,” Landau said.

However, the tourism minister added, in recent years the topic became a political one between Turkey and Armenia and each side is trying to prove it is right.

“We hope these two countries will implement the agreement they signed several years ago and will continue to have an open, deep dialogue that will allow them to heal from the wounds that remained open for decades,” the minister said.