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TEL-AVIV MUST RISE ABOVE MONOPOLIZING GENOCIDE
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
asbarez
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman
When Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said "attempts to
turn conflicts and massacres in Africa, Asia and Balkans into another
Holocaust are unacceptable," and "Since its establishment, Israel has
opposed the application of the term Holocaust to another war or
tragedy," it revealed an ugly and ignorant reality by which certain
Israeli leaders have been guided.
Having risen from the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel should have been
the first country to properly acknowledge the events of 1915 as
Genocide. However, as Lieberman himself decries that "today historical
incidents have turned into political disputes; that's why I don't
consider it right for Israel to address this [the Genocide] issue,"
the Israeli government has made it a policy to ignore the Armenian
Genocide in the face of its regional POLITICAL interests-namely its
unholy alliance with Turkey.
Lieberman's assertion that Israel has a monopoly on man's inhumanity
to man disrespects and diminishes the suffering and eventual fate of
the millions genocide victims be they Armenian, Rwandan or Sudanese.
It also goes against all international conventions on prevention of
such acts, to which Israel is a signatory. More important, Lieberman's
statements can be characterized as denial, which implies complicity in
and the perpetuation of the cycle of Genocide.
In December, an unprecedented discussion took place in the Israeli
Knesset, where leaders from both parties affirmed the need for
Israel's recognition of the Armenian Genocide. This coincided-or
prompted-leading Israeli publications and human rights advocates, to
as the director of Jerusalem Institute of Holocaust and Genocide
Israel Charny appropriately said "put an end to this charade and fully
recognize the Armenian Genocide."
At the same Knesset event Israel's foreign ministry representatives
maintained the Tel-Aviv's steadfast denial of the Genocide by saying
"at this time, recognition of this type can have very grave strategic
implications... Our relations with Turkey today are so fragile and so
delicate that there is no place to take them over the red line." Is
this not politicizing historic events?
This dangerous semantics game only bolsters the likes of Turkey to
continue its policies and further its pre-meditated and planned
campaign of denial that also allows it to wreak havoc on its
minorities today and pursue a policy of stifling those that stand
opposed to its doctrines.
Israel must rise above Lieberman's skewed beliefs that Israel has
cornered the market on being a victim of a systematic effort to
annihilate an entire race. Such a monopoly does not exist in the world
and the likes of Avigdor Lieberman only incite hatred by making such
statements.
Lieberman should remember that such sense of entitlement breeds
supremacist sentiments, which were the cornerstone of Hitler's plan
that eventually became known as the Holocaust.
From: Baghdasarian
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
asbarez
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman
When Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said "attempts to
turn conflicts and massacres in Africa, Asia and Balkans into another
Holocaust are unacceptable," and "Since its establishment, Israel has
opposed the application of the term Holocaust to another war or
tragedy," it revealed an ugly and ignorant reality by which certain
Israeli leaders have been guided.
Having risen from the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel should have been
the first country to properly acknowledge the events of 1915 as
Genocide. However, as Lieberman himself decries that "today historical
incidents have turned into political disputes; that's why I don't
consider it right for Israel to address this [the Genocide] issue,"
the Israeli government has made it a policy to ignore the Armenian
Genocide in the face of its regional POLITICAL interests-namely its
unholy alliance with Turkey.
Lieberman's assertion that Israel has a monopoly on man's inhumanity
to man disrespects and diminishes the suffering and eventual fate of
the millions genocide victims be they Armenian, Rwandan or Sudanese.
It also goes against all international conventions on prevention of
such acts, to which Israel is a signatory. More important, Lieberman's
statements can be characterized as denial, which implies complicity in
and the perpetuation of the cycle of Genocide.
In December, an unprecedented discussion took place in the Israeli
Knesset, where leaders from both parties affirmed the need for
Israel's recognition of the Armenian Genocide. This coincided-or
prompted-leading Israeli publications and human rights advocates, to
as the director of Jerusalem Institute of Holocaust and Genocide
Israel Charny appropriately said "put an end to this charade and fully
recognize the Armenian Genocide."
At the same Knesset event Israel's foreign ministry representatives
maintained the Tel-Aviv's steadfast denial of the Genocide by saying
"at this time, recognition of this type can have very grave strategic
implications... Our relations with Turkey today are so fragile and so
delicate that there is no place to take them over the red line." Is
this not politicizing historic events?
This dangerous semantics game only bolsters the likes of Turkey to
continue its policies and further its pre-meditated and planned
campaign of denial that also allows it to wreak havoc on its
minorities today and pursue a policy of stifling those that stand
opposed to its doctrines.
Israel must rise above Lieberman's skewed beliefs that Israel has
cornered the market on being a victim of a systematic effort to
annihilate an entire race. Such a monopoly does not exist in the world
and the likes of Avigdor Lieberman only incite hatred by making such
statements.
Lieberman should remember that such sense of entitlement breeds
supremacist sentiments, which were the cornerstone of Hitler's plan
that eventually became known as the Holocaust.
From: Baghdasarian