In early December, the Knesset committee on education and culture will discuss the possibility of Israel’s recognition of the Armenian genocide. The chairman of the coalition, the deputy Zeev Elkin and the speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin want Israel to recognize the fact of genocide.
At the same time the chairman of the commission, Alex Miller, told VK that he won’t allow a positive decision on this issue.
It should be noted that during all Israel’s history up to the 1990s the country has many times officially stated that it has no intention to recognize developments of 1915 as Armenian genocide, as it doesn’t want to be involved in this history dispute between Turkish and Armenian peoples.
In 1992 left parties raised to power in Israel, and it changed the situation. Even in the early 1990s the chairman of the fraction of left-radical Israeli party MEREZ Zahava Galyon insisted on necessity of recognition of Armenian genocide and denying unique character of the Jewish Holocaust. The minister of education, the member of MAREZ Amnon Rubinshtein tried to include a chapter about Armenian genocide of 1915 in school textbooks, but the initiative was heavily criticized by tutors, politicians and diplomats.
At that moment the Israeli supporters of the genocide recognition understood that the commission on foreign affairs and defense would never make a positive decision on recognition of the genocide of the Armenian people. They tried to present the issue as humanitarian rather than political one in the commission on education, in which positions of the left parties have always been very strong.
Number of the Armenian genocide recognition supporters grew after election to the Knesset immigrants from the Soviet Union. These people had their own experience and vision of the current Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict.
For example, in 1999 Alexander Zinker, who had been working in Armenia for a long time, was elected to the Knesset. Soon Zinker together with Roman Bronfman established the fraction Democratic Choice, and Zinker was appointed to the position of the head of the parliamentary group Israel-Armenia. He began to lobby the issue on recognition of the Armenian genocide. Zinker suggested a new plan: first of all, to change public opinion on developments of 1915, and when the idea of recognition of the genocide will be supported by people, it can be present for discussion in the Knesset.
To his credit Alexander Zinker rejected proposals by some Armenian social and political activists on using the current crisis in Turkish-Israeli relations for lobbying the genocide issue in the Knesset. According to Zinker, he saw insult of the genocide victims’ memory in such proposals.
After elections 2005 a young tutor and scientist Zeev Elkin appeared in the Knesset, as a member of Kadima party. He didn’t hide that he was an active supporter of recognition of the Armenian genocide.
The position of Elkin is principle and consistent. He was born in Kharkov, where he met his first wife, who came there from Armenia. They were pupils that time, and soon Elkin began to visit Yerevan often. He was influenced by Armenian intelligentsia and views on developments in the South Caucasus.
However, in the same Knesset a journalist and writer Josef Shagal, who was born in Azerbaijan, was elected too. He had the opposite position. Heavy debates between Elkin and Shagal were written in the history of the Knesset.
Some other deputies of the Knesset have many times stated on the fact that recognition of the Armenian genocide is unacceptable for Israel. The session of the Knesset commission will be tense. At the moment both sides are sure in their success.
