Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing mounting pressure to ignore protests by Turkey and follow U.S. President Joe Biden in declaring the mass killings of Armenians and other minority groups a century ago a genocide,
News Week reports.
Biden’s historic genocide recognition made the United States the 30th country in the world to classify as such the ethnic cleansing that experts estimate killed a million Armenians and hundreds of thousands of other minorities, including Assyrians and Greeks, at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
The decision immediately put the U.S. at odds with NATO ally Turkey, the modern successor to the Ottoman Empire. Ankara denies that it was part of a systematic campaign that qualifies as genocide.
The move also put the spotlight on another U.S. ally in the Middle East, Israel. Despite the country’s intrinsic ties to the systematic massacre of more than six million Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust during World War II, Israel has not recognized an Armenian Genocide.
“The State of Israel recognizes the tragedy and terrible suffering of the Armenian people,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement sent to Newsweek.
American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris said in a statement sent to Newsweek. “That’s what makes President Joe Biden’s decision, which the American Jewish Committee warmly welcomed, all the more significant. He didn't compromise on truth for the sake of political expediency.”
AJC, an influential Jewish advocacy organization that predates even the mass killings and displacements in question, “has also encouraged Israel to consider the American step,” he said.
Harris said it should be done, even if it came at the cost of fueling further tensions with a powerful regional player.
