Knesset Committee Recognizes Armenian Genocide

Following years of debate, Israel has taken its first official step toward recognition of the Armenian genocide.

The Knesset’s Education, Culture and Sports Committee decided to recognize the Armenian genocide on Monday at a meeting initiated by Committee chairwoman, Meretz MK Zehava Galon, according to Arutz Sheva.

However, neither the Israeli government nor the Knesset as a whole has yet passed any motion to recognize the massacre of some 1.5 Armenians by Turkey during World War I.

“It is our moral obligation to recognize the holocaust of the Armenian nation,” said Galon in a joint statement with MK Yaakov Margi (Shas). A supposed 1.5 million Armenians were reportedly massacred by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

“Each year we instill false hope in the people sitting here,” said Galon. “It is a disservice to the Knesset to continue going on and on about this issue, year after year, without reaching a decision that the state of Israel and the Knesset recognize the genocide of the Armenian people.”