Knesset Education Committee recognizes Armenian genocide

The Knesset's Education, Culture and Sports Committee on Monday announced it recognizes the Armenian genocide and urged the government to formally acknowledge the 1915 mass slaughter of 1.5 Armenians as such, according to the timesofisrael.com.

"It is our moral obligation to recognize the Armenian genocide," said committee chair Yakov Margi (Shas) at a committee meeting.

Margi expressed regret that the State of Israel does not currently recognize the genocide by Ottoman Turks 101 years ago, and called on Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to do so.
Israel's refusal thus far to formally recognize the Armenian slaughter as genocide is based on geopolitical and strategic considerations, primary among them its relations with Turkey, which vehemently denies that Ottoman Turks committed genocide. Israel and Turkey signed a rapprochement deal in June, upgrading their diplomatic relationship after years of frosty ties worsened by a fatal melee between IDF soldiers and Turkish activists aboard a Gaza-bound ship in 2010.

During Monday's meeting, Meretz MK Zehava Galon, Zionist Union MKs Zouheir Bahloul and Nahman Shai, and Joint (Arab) List MK Dov Khenin voiced support for the measure.  Earlier this month, Edelstein (Likud) urged Israel to recognize the Armenian genocide, despite the friction it might cause with Turkey.

"We must not ignore, belittle or deny this terrible genocide," Edelstein said as the Knesset discussed the possibility of recognizing the genocide. "We must disconnect the current interests, bound to this time and place, from the difficult past, of which this dark chapter is a part," he added.  Georgette Avakian, chairwoman of the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Jerusalem, said that after 101 years, the time has come for the Knesset to join parliaments around the world and the 31 countries who have already recognized the Armenian Genocide. "The Knesset and the President of the State must recognize the genocide of our nation," she said.
Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin was a staunch supporter of Armenian Genocide recognition while he was Chairman of the Knesset. At the January 2015 United Nations (UN) General Assembly's Holocaust memorial, Rivlin recognized the Armenian Genocide while he was defending Israel against what he called "cynical" accusations of genocide and war crimes in his country's dealing with Palestinians.

"In 1915, the days of the Armenian Genocide, Avshalom Feinberg of the NILI underground [A Jewish spy network in Ottoman Palestine] wrote the following: 'My teeth have been worn away by anger, who is next? I have walked on sacred and holy ground, on the road to Jerusalem, and asked myself if it is this time that we live in-1915-or in the days of Titus or Nebuchadnezzar? And I asked myself whether I may cry for the hurt of the daughter of my people alone and if Jeremiah did not shed his tears of blood also for the Armenians," said Rivlin at the memorial.