HATTIS-ROLEF: EXCUSE THAT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MAY BELITTLE HOLOCAUST DISGRACEFUL

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 26, 2011 – 11:17 AMT

Until recently, Israel chose to ignore the Genocide in the Ottoman
empire, Susan Hattis Rolef, a former Knesset employee writes in an
article titled “The Armenians, the Jews and Israel.”

“In 1915-16, during World War I, the Turks were responsible for the
massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman
Empire. Among the first to warn about the nature and scope of the
atrocity was Aaron Aaronsohn – the renowned agronomist from Zichron
Ya’acov who established the Nili spy ring, which in the course of the
war collected information about Ottoman military movements and other
strategic issues and passed it on to the British authorities. Several
of Aaronsohn’s relatives and colleagues actually witnessed the bloody
manifestations of the massacre. In November 1916, Aaronsohn sent the
British authorities a memorandum entitled “Pro Armenia,” in which he
described the atrocities… And yet until recently, Israel has chosen
to ignore the event, with numerous excuses, each of which is shameful
in its own right,” the article says.

“The first is that since Turkey denies that a systematic massacre of
Armenians ever took place, as well as minimizing the numbers involved
(a number that justifies the term genocide), and since for years
Israel regarded Turkey as a strategic ally – one of the few Muslim
states it could regard as such – Israel would do well not to “let
sleeping dogs lie.” The fact that other states, including the U.S.,
adopted a similar policy seemed to justify Israel’s position.”

“The second excuse was that referring to the massacre of the Armenians
as genocide might belittle the enormity of the Holocaust – an Israeli
attitude that applies to other cases of genocide as well (and is, in my
opinion, not just unjustified, but disgraceful). The Jewish Holocaust –
in terms of both its circumstances and its manifestations – is without
doubt unique. Nevertheless, this does not justify our belittling or
ignoring the horrors that have occurred to other peoples,” it says.

“The third excuse is that since we do not like others criticizing
our treatment of the Palestinians, we should avoid criticizing other
states for the way they treat their minorities. This excuse is simply
foolish, and may easily boomerang, because no matter how problematic
our record of treating our Arab citizens (and the Palestinians in
general) might be, it bears no resemblance to the sorts of acts we are
talking about. On the contrary, given the nature of the Arab-Israeli
conflict, our record – though certainly not free of blemish – cannot
be described as involving massacres or acts of genocide at all, as
some, including the Turks, can. The Turks are the first who should
be confronted with the difference, and it is a shame that only now,
when Israel’s relations with Turkey have deteriorated to unprecedented
levels due to unbridled Turkish attacks, Israel has finally decided
to have its public say on the Armenian Genocide.”