The several-months campaign of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide Jerusalem to influence the Israeli government to recognize the Armenian Genocide as of April 24, 2022 failed to achieve its goal, but we can hope nonetheless that it left some positive influences which will yet be helpful in the future.

We argued that the date April 24 represented Armenia’s Day of Remembrance, much as Yom HaShoah does for the Holocaust.  We recalled for the government and Knesset leaders with whom we were in contact that historically this was the day in 1915 when the Turks arrested some 250 leaders of the Armenian community: outstanding musicians and composers, actors, writers and translators, journalists and intellectual leaders, poets, mathematicians, headmasters of schools, educators, university professors, newspaper editors, doctors and dentists, pharmacists, members of councils and of the Armenian National Assembly, lawyers, merchants, bankers, clergymen, scientists, architects, and deputies in the Ottoman parliament. The overwhelming majority of these celebrated leaders and influences on the morale of the Armenian community were executed within a short period following their arrests. Third, we noted that the United States had finally completed full recognition of the Armenian Genocide which had been recognized by overwhelming votes of the House of Representatives and the US Senate (where there was a unanimous vote!) and now received final confirmation of its recognition by President Joseph Biden on April 24, 2021.  We suggested that it would be very appropriate for the State of Israel to follow through similarly this year.

A significant number of Israeli leaders conveyed their support, and we were able to make a positive contact with the senior staff of the Foreign Minister who was also the designated future Prime Minister.  Unfortunately, however, our efforts came to a grinding halt as a major political crisis unfolded in Israel and literally threatened to bring down the current government. In addition, we ran into a long recess of the Knesset during April, and there was no way that any political action could be advanced during this period.

Please see the following articles that were published prominently in English in the Jerusalem Post and in Hebrew in Haaretz.  

Charny, Israel W. (March 14, 2022). Recognize Armenian genocide by April 24 – opinion
Like Israel, the US shamefully struggled for many years with its failure to recognize the Armenian Genocide because – very mistakenly and actually meekly – the US feared Turkish anger. Jerusalem Post. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-701274

Charny, Israel W. (April 5, 2022). Israel should not fear Turkish in recognizing Armenian genocide – opinion: Many countries have been scared to recognize the Armenian genocide because of Turkey’s possible reaction. Jerusalem Post. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-703331

Charny, Israel W. (April 23, 2022). Israel Must Recognize the Armenian Genocide. Haaretz (Hebrew). http://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.10753502

In addition, we were supported – though a few days after April 24 – by a strong editorial in the Jerusalem Post whose full text follows here.

JPost Editorial (April 30, 2022). Time for Israel to not fear Turkey and Russia and recognize genocide: Israel’s approach to the Armenian genocide is too similar to the way it has managed its position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-705543

Last week, Israel marked Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to commemorate the genocide and murder of six million Jews by the Nazis.

Newspapers, TV shows and radio airwaves were filled with stories of the survivors – and the country paid attention.

It makes sense. The story of the establishment of the State of Israel is intertwined with the Holocaust. Survivors flocked to the country after the war, helped build it, fought for it in subsequent wars and deserve a large deal of credit for Israel’s spectacular success.

Last Sunday, though, a day was marked around the world, that went largely unnoticed in Israel. It was the 107th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide that commemorates the 1.5 million Armenians who were deported, massacred or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination by the Ottoman Empire.

US President Joe Biden issued a statement to commemorate the massacre, which he termed a “genocide” for the first time last year, in line with a promise he made on the campaign trail.

“We renew our pledge to remain vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms,” the president said. “We recommit ourselves to speaking out and stopping atrocities that leave lasting scars on the world.”

Turkey, as expected, responded angrily, calling Biden’s remarks “statements that are incompatible with historical facts and international law.”

Israel was noticeably quiet, and it is a silence that is a stain on the Jewish state. It shows how once again Jerusalem is preferring diplomatic and security interests over standing up for what is true and right, especially being a people that knows genocide firsthand.

As Prof. Israel Charney, one of the founders of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, wrote in these pages last month, Israel should not fear Turkey.

“Is it so beyond our imagination as Israelis to be able to say to Turkey at this time, ‘We have every respect for you as an important country and are happy to work closely with you, but we owe our own culture the clear cut responsibility to identify with a people whose historical record shows that they were subject to governmental extermination’?” Charney asked.

The continued Israeli refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide comes as Jerusalem is renewing diplomatic ties with Turkey. President Isaac Herzog recently visited Ankara and Israel obviously does not want to undermine those efforts.

What makes this wrong is that even when Israel’s ties with Turkey had hit rock bottom due to Erdogan’s vile antisemitism, the government also refused to recognize the Armenian genocide then. The reason was that it was better not to do something that would derail the chance for rapprochement. In other words, when ties are bad the timing is bad – and when ties are better the timing is also bad.

In 2019, after the US Senate recognized the genocide, Yair Lapid – then in the opposition – called on Israel to follow suit. He even proposed a bill that would obligate Israel to mark the day.

“It’s time to stop being afraid of the Sultan in Turkey and do what is morally right,” he tweeted at the time.

If it’s time to stop being afraid of the “Sultan in Turkey,” then why did Lapid not put out a statement last week? Why did he not order the Foreign Ministry to publicly mark the day?

Is doing “what is morally right” no longer the right thing to do?

The answer is obvious. What is easy to push for in the opposition is harder to do when you are foreign minister.

This is wrong. Israel’s approach to the Armenian genocide is too similar to the way it has managed its position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on the one hand offering support to Kyiv but on the other hand holding back from sanctions against Russia and public condemnations of President Vladimir Putin.

Policy on Ukraine has been dictated by security interests and the need to be able to continue operating in coordination with Russia in Syria. With the Armenian genocide, Israel is again letting diplomatic and security interests get in the way of what is the right and moral stance to take.

It is time for Israel to stop being afraid of Turkey and Russia. Standing up for what is moral and right strengthens nations. It is Israel’s time to do so.