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AL-MONITOR: THE ISRAELI POLITICS BEHIND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/04/23/al-monitor-the-israeli-politics-behind-the-armenian-genocide/
14:07 23.04.2013
"On Wednesday, April 24, the world will mark the 98th anniversary of
the genocide carried out against the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.
As it does every year, this year, too, Israel will be silent. The
Jewish state, which just two weeks ago honored the 6 million Jews who
perished in the Holocaust, will abstain from marking the genocide in
which 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians perished. President Shimon
Peres, who spoke at the central memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem and
pointed a finger at "those who forget and deny the Holocaust," will
continue, as he does every year, to ignore the cruel genocide carried
out a quarter of a century before World War II," reads an article
published by the Al-Monitor.
When Adolf Hitler was asked how the world would respond to his "Final
Solution" plan - the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe - he
replied, without compunction: "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
"Germany speaks today of the annihilation of the Jews, assumes
responsibility for the Holocaust, memorializes the victims and
compensates the survivors. Turkey not only refuses to recognize the
Armenian genocide - its government conducts all-out wars against
states that mention the event and punishes governments that grant it
official recognition. Only a year and a half ago, Turkey recalled its
ambassador from Paris to protest the French parliament's approval of
legislation that criminalizes the denial of the Armenian genocide,"
author Akiva Eldar reminds.
The man who coined the term genocide and fought for adoption of the
treaty was the Jewish-Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, whose entire
family was annihilated in the Holocaust. He himself managed to flee to
the United States. Lemkin referred specifically to the Armenian
annihilation as an act of genocide. This position was never adopted by
Israeli governments. The official Israeli position was summed up in
2001 in an interview by then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres with the
Turkish Daily News: "The Armenians suffered a tragedy," he said, "but
not genocide."
In advance of the Armenian memorial day someone should point out to
the president a compilation of testimony provided by members of Nili
(a Jewish spy ring that operated in Palestine during World War I in an
effort to help the British army wrest it from the Turks) about what
befell the Armenians. He might just change his mind.
This is the testimony of Eitan Belkind, a Nili man who infiltrated the
Turkish military:
"I was amazed to see the river colored red with the blood and bodies
of decapitated children floating on the water. The sight was
horrendous - and we are powerless to help." Belkind later described
how Circassian soldiers ordered the Armenians to gather thorns and
thistles and form them into a large pyramid, tied some 5,000 people to
each other hand to hand in a ring around the thorn pile and set it on
fire. "The fire rose to the sky along with the screams of the wretched
people charred to death in the bonfire," he wrote. "I fled from the
place because I could not watch that horrible scene. I urged my horse
to gallop with all his might and after a wild two-hour ride I could
still hear their miserable cries until their voices died out. Two days
later I went back to the place and saw the charred bodies of thousands
of human beings."
In a memorandum submitted to the British Ministry of Defense in 1916,
Nili leader Aaron Aaronsohn wrote: "The massacre of the Armenians is a
well-planned Turkish action and the Germans were partners in this
shameful act."
These harsh words were echoed at a seminar held on April 11 of this
year on the subject of "The Nakba in Israel's National Memory" (by The
Walter Lebach Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education
and the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv
University). During the discussion, Professor Yair Auron of the Open
University, who for years has been leading a determined struggle for
recognition of the Armenian genocide, was sharply critical of the
indifference of Israel's political and academic elite to the tragedies
of other nations. Later, in an interview with Al-Monitor, Auron
contended that through their indifference, "they are defiling the
memory of the Holocaust."
"And, in fact, other than a handful of right- and left-wing
politicians, none of the leaders of mainstream Israeli politics showed
up. For them, any attempt to hint that other peoples were also
persecuted and massacred for racist reasons is considered "disrespect
for the Holocaust" (they themselves, on the other hand, often use the
term "Holocaust," especially to scare the Israeli public with the
Iranian threat). They do not define the Armenian genocide as a
human-Jewish-ethical issue. Israeli universities make do with teaching
the Jewish Holocaust and evince no interest in the disasters of other
peoples. Nonetheless, at Auron's instigation, the Open University has
for several years been teaching a course on the Armenian genocide,
which is much in demand by students," Akiva Eldar writes.
According to the author, "The recognition of the Armenian genocide by
Israeli decision-makers is a question of politics, of the relationship
between Israel, Turkey and the United States. "Who cares about
relations with little Armenia (3 million citizens)? In fact, Israel
even earned several million dollars recently, benefiting from the
Turkish government's decision to cancel a weapons deal with France in
retaliation for the above-mentioned legislation against denial of the
Armenian genocide. "
In 2007, the Knesset decided to remove from its daily agenda a
proposal by Knesset Member Haim Oron of the Meretz Party to debate the
Armenian genocide in the Education and Culture Committee. The decision
resulted from orders by then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni, who feared that further discussion of the issue
would lead to a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey.
In a debate that took place in the Knesset five years later (June 12,
2012), over the objections of the diplomatic echelon, the government's
representative, then Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan,
confessed that "this whole debate is taking place against the backdrop
of relations between Israel and Turkey." Nothing has changed.
At the low point of relations with Turkey, following the failed May
2010 Israeli takeover of the flotilla to Gaza which gave birth to the
"Marmara Crisis," some right-wing politicians suggested "punishing"
the Turks by recognizing the Armenian genocide. And what would we have
done now? Would Prime Minister Netanyahu have repealed the recognition
of the Armenian genocide to complement his apology to Turkey over the
Marmara? Hearing of that idea, Auron reacts with anger: "As a human
being and as a Jew, I am deeply ashamed that an issue of such basic
principle and ethics has been turned into a pawn."
The office of President Peres did not respond to a query by
Al-Monitor, asking whether he had changed his mind regarding the
genocide of the Armenian people.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/04/23/al-monitor-the-israeli-politics-behind-the-armenian-genocide/
14:07 23.04.2013
"On Wednesday, April 24, the world will mark the 98th anniversary of
the genocide carried out against the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.
As it does every year, this year, too, Israel will be silent. The
Jewish state, which just two weeks ago honored the 6 million Jews who
perished in the Holocaust, will abstain from marking the genocide in
which 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians perished. President Shimon
Peres, who spoke at the central memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem and
pointed a finger at "those who forget and deny the Holocaust," will
continue, as he does every year, to ignore the cruel genocide carried
out a quarter of a century before World War II," reads an article
published by the Al-Monitor.
When Adolf Hitler was asked how the world would respond to his "Final
Solution" plan - the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe - he
replied, without compunction: "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
"Germany speaks today of the annihilation of the Jews, assumes
responsibility for the Holocaust, memorializes the victims and
compensates the survivors. Turkey not only refuses to recognize the
Armenian genocide - its government conducts all-out wars against
states that mention the event and punishes governments that grant it
official recognition. Only a year and a half ago, Turkey recalled its
ambassador from Paris to protest the French parliament's approval of
legislation that criminalizes the denial of the Armenian genocide,"
author Akiva Eldar reminds.
The man who coined the term genocide and fought for adoption of the
treaty was the Jewish-Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, whose entire
family was annihilated in the Holocaust. He himself managed to flee to
the United States. Lemkin referred specifically to the Armenian
annihilation as an act of genocide. This position was never adopted by
Israeli governments. The official Israeli position was summed up in
2001 in an interview by then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres with the
Turkish Daily News: "The Armenians suffered a tragedy," he said, "but
not genocide."
In advance of the Armenian memorial day someone should point out to
the president a compilation of testimony provided by members of Nili
(a Jewish spy ring that operated in Palestine during World War I in an
effort to help the British army wrest it from the Turks) about what
befell the Armenians. He might just change his mind.
This is the testimony of Eitan Belkind, a Nili man who infiltrated the
Turkish military:
"I was amazed to see the river colored red with the blood and bodies
of decapitated children floating on the water. The sight was
horrendous - and we are powerless to help." Belkind later described
how Circassian soldiers ordered the Armenians to gather thorns and
thistles and form them into a large pyramid, tied some 5,000 people to
each other hand to hand in a ring around the thorn pile and set it on
fire. "The fire rose to the sky along with the screams of the wretched
people charred to death in the bonfire," he wrote. "I fled from the
place because I could not watch that horrible scene. I urged my horse
to gallop with all his might and after a wild two-hour ride I could
still hear their miserable cries until their voices died out. Two days
later I went back to the place and saw the charred bodies of thousands
of human beings."
In a memorandum submitted to the British Ministry of Defense in 1916,
Nili leader Aaron Aaronsohn wrote: "The massacre of the Armenians is a
well-planned Turkish action and the Germans were partners in this
shameful act."
These harsh words were echoed at a seminar held on April 11 of this
year on the subject of "The Nakba in Israel's National Memory" (by The
Walter Lebach Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education
and the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv
University). During the discussion, Professor Yair Auron of the Open
University, who for years has been leading a determined struggle for
recognition of the Armenian genocide, was sharply critical of the
indifference of Israel's political and academic elite to the tragedies
of other nations. Later, in an interview with Al-Monitor, Auron
contended that through their indifference, "they are defiling the
memory of the Holocaust."
"And, in fact, other than a handful of right- and left-wing
politicians, none of the leaders of mainstream Israeli politics showed
up. For them, any attempt to hint that other peoples were also
persecuted and massacred for racist reasons is considered "disrespect
for the Holocaust" (they themselves, on the other hand, often use the
term "Holocaust," especially to scare the Israeli public with the
Iranian threat). They do not define the Armenian genocide as a
human-Jewish-ethical issue. Israeli universities make do with teaching
the Jewish Holocaust and evince no interest in the disasters of other
peoples. Nonetheless, at Auron's instigation, the Open University has
for several years been teaching a course on the Armenian genocide,
which is much in demand by students," Akiva Eldar writes.
According to the author, "The recognition of the Armenian genocide by
Israeli decision-makers is a question of politics, of the relationship
between Israel, Turkey and the United States. "Who cares about
relations with little Armenia (3 million citizens)? In fact, Israel
even earned several million dollars recently, benefiting from the
Turkish government's decision to cancel a weapons deal with France in
retaliation for the above-mentioned legislation against denial of the
Armenian genocide. "
In 2007, the Knesset decided to remove from its daily agenda a
proposal by Knesset Member Haim Oron of the Meretz Party to debate the
Armenian genocide in the Education and Culture Committee. The decision
resulted from orders by then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni, who feared that further discussion of the issue
would lead to a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey.
In a debate that took place in the Knesset five years later (June 12,
2012), over the objections of the diplomatic echelon, the government's
representative, then Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan,
confessed that "this whole debate is taking place against the backdrop
of relations between Israel and Turkey." Nothing has changed.
At the low point of relations with Turkey, following the failed May
2010 Israeli takeover of the flotilla to Gaza which gave birth to the
"Marmara Crisis," some right-wing politicians suggested "punishing"
the Turks by recognizing the Armenian genocide. And what would we have
done now? Would Prime Minister Netanyahu have repealed the recognition
of the Armenian genocide to complement his apology to Turkey over the
Marmara? Hearing of that idea, Auron reacts with anger: "As a human
being and as a Jew, I am deeply ashamed that an issue of such basic
principle and ethics has been turned into a pawn."
The office of President Peres did not respond to a query by
Al-Monitor, asking whether he had changed his mind regarding the
genocide of the Armenian people.