Israel's government has voted to officially recognize the Armenian genocide, a decision announced by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar in a June 25 post on X and approved by the cabinet three days later. But according to Stefan Ihrig, writing in Haaretz, the timing of the move "has much more to do with regional and internal politics than moral and historical questions."
The decision follows years of ambiguity. Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a terse “I just did. Here you go” when asked in a podcast interview whether Israel recognized the genocide, but no formal action followed. Sa'ar's announcement changed that, stating that recognizing "the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the final years of the Ottoman Empire is both a moral and historical duty."
Ihrig, head of the Haifa Center for German and European Studies at the University of Haifa, does not dispute the historical fact of the genocide or Israel's duty to recognize it. But in his Haaretz analysis, he argues that "times of regional war, instability and trauma are perhaps the worst moments to take such solemn, symbolic steps." He notes that genocide recognition worldwide has its own "checkered, if not transactional and cynical, track record," citing decades of shifting U.S. positions before Congress and President Biden formalized recognition in 2019 and 2021, respectively, and Germany's delayed 2016 acknowledgment.
According to Ihrig's Haaretz piece, Israel's timing coincides with historically low relations with Turkey, making the gesture largely cost-free, and appears aimed at reclaiming moral authority to define what constitutes genocide amid international criticism over the war in Gaza. He likens the maneuver to the "whataboutism" tactics often used by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The article also points to unresolved contradictions closer to home: Israel's silence during the 2023 displacement of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh while it was arming Azerbaijan, and the ongoing "Save the ArQ" campaign, in which residents of Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter have for over two years resisted land seizures in the historic Cows' Garden.
Because the Knesset is set to dissolve, formal legislative recognition remains unlikely, meaning Sa'ar may secure symbolic credit "but incurs none of the burdens of actually following the bill through," Ihrig writes in Haaretz.
He concludes that instrumentalizing historical truth for political gain deserves its own condemnation, writing: "This is not the way to honor the dead."
Artwork: Source, Haaretz