Tweet
ISRAEL: THE POLITICS BEHIND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Al-Monitor
April 22 2013
By: Akiva Eldar for Al-Monitor Israel Pulse Posted on April 22.
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 [April 8] 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.
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
(several weeks later, the law was repealed).
The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide
defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such."
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.
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.
Akiva Eldar is a contributing writer for Al-Monitor's Israel Pulse. He
was formerly a senior columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz and
also served as the Hebrew daily's US bureau chief and diplomatic
correspondent. His most recent book (with Idith Zertal), Lords of
the Land, on the Jewish settlements, was on the best-seller list in
Israel and has been translated into English, German and Arabic.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/the-politics-behind-the-armenian-genocide.html
From: Baghdasarian
Al-Monitor
April 22 2013
By: Akiva Eldar for Al-Monitor Israel Pulse Posted on April 22.
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 [April 8] 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.
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
(several weeks later, the law was repealed).
The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide
defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such."
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.
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.
Akiva Eldar is a contributing writer for Al-Monitor's Israel Pulse. He
was formerly a senior columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz and
also served as the Hebrew daily's US bureau chief and diplomatic
correspondent. His most recent book (with Idith Zertal), Lords of
the Land, on the Jewish settlements, was on the best-seller list in
Israel and has been translated into English, German and Arabic.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/the-politics-behind-the-armenian-genocide.html
From: Baghdasarian