12:43 . 13/06
Yesterday Israeli Knesset discussed the Armenian Genocide recognition issue and it will still continue its discussion in the Committee of Education. The latter will participate in the session already with a resolution proposal.
During yesterday’s plenary session eight MPs representing all the parliamentary committees including government representative, Israel’s Environmental Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, delivered speeches.
“As I am presently speaking in the name of Israel’s government as a coordinating minister, I am confidently saying that if the government was trying in the past not to be related with this issue, the only reason was that it didn’t wish to politicize the issue. I personally think there can hardly be an argument, at least I haven’t heard any argument which could prove the opposite. It is quite reasonable that Israel’s government officially recognizes the Holocaust perpetrated against Armenians,” Gilard Erdan has said.
He is a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It is noteworthy that in his speech he used the word “Holocaust”.
Yigal Palmor, a spokesman at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said Israel’s formal position on the Armenian tragedy remained that the issue “must be decided by historians and not be subject to political deliberation.” Nino Abesadze, a lawmaker with the centrist Kadima party, spoke against linking the issue to relations with Turkey.
“We must not link our moral and emotional sentiments about the Armenian tragedy to any strategic interests and regional dangers. Events such as genocide are above any kind of political or regional disagreements,” Abesadze said.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin’s statement is especially worth mentioning. He particularly said in his speech: “Those who drafted the Final Solution for the Jews figured the world would be silent as they were when the Armenians were murdered. The Knesset cannot ignore this episode that is factual. We cannot forgive nations who ignore our disaster and we cannot ignore the disasters of others”.
This is not the first time that Knesset has put the Armenian Genocide issue to discussion. In December 2011, the Committee of Education held an open discussion on the issue. At that time, the foreign ministry representative presented the position of their agency negatively evaluating the adoption of the bill, as it could damage the relations with Turkey. But the relations with Ankara sharply worsened in May 2010, when 9 Turkish activists died after the attack on the Turkish humanitarian fleet by the Israeli armed forces.
The session was held on the day before the publication of the report by Turkey on the attack on Mavi Marmara transporting humanitarian aid in Gaza section in 2009. Though the majority of the parliamentarians noted with the session they don’t intend to worsen relations with Turkey, Environmental Minister Gilard Erdan, however, has slammed Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdan blamed Erdogan for applying dual standards, as he doesn’t recognize the Armenian Genocide but announces publicly that Israel is organizing genocide in Gaza.
The future will show if this discussion will have the same fate as the Armenian Genocide criminalization bill in the French Senate.
