Sa’ar Proposes Official Israeli Recognition of Armenian Genocide
By The Media Line Staff
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will ask the Israeli government at an upcoming meeting to approve a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide, a move that would declare Israel’s official acknowledgment of the mass killings carried out against the Armenian people during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
The proposal states that Israel has a moral and historical responsibility to recognize the genocide and to condemn any attempts to deny, minimize or distort the historical record of the events.
According to the explanatory text accompanying the resolution, the Armenian Genocide began in April 1915 with the arrest, deportation and killing of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, community leaders and members of the educated elite in Constantinople.
The proposal says that after eliminating the Armenian leadership, Ottoman authorities carried out a systematic campaign against the broader Armenian population. Men were drafted into forced labor before being killed, while women, children and elderly civilians were expelled from their homes and forced on death marches toward the Syrian desert. During those marches, they were subjected to mass murder, rape, deliberate starvation and dehydration.
The explanatory text states that approximately 1.5 million people were killed and that the campaign destroyed a cultural and historical heritage that had existed across Anatolia for thousands of years.
The proposal also states that, despite extensive and unequivocal historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide continues to face organized efforts to deny or minimize what occurred, including what it describes as the manipulative rewriting of history books, primarily by Turkey.
According to the proposal, 32 countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide through parliamentary resolutions, legislation or official declarations.
The resolution says that, in addition to recognizing the genocide, Israel should condemn all efforts to blur, minimize or deny the atrocities committed against the Armenian people.
If approved by the government, the resolution will subsequently be brought before the Knesset for approval.
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