Israel is among the holocaust deniers
Haaretz
Tue., March 29, 2005
By Yossi Sarid
April 24 will mark the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and
the Armenian government is holding an international conference in the
capital of Yerevan, dedicated to the memory of the more than a million
Armenians murdered by the Turks. I was also invited, and I decided to
attend. This month will also see the Hebrew publication of Prof. Yair
Auron’s eye-opening and stomach churning book, “The Banality of
Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide,” Transaction Publishers,
which has already been highly praised overseas in its English-language
edition.
As opposed to many other nations, Israel has never recognized the
murder of the Armenian people, and in effect lent a hand to the
deniers of that genocide. Our official reactions moved in the vague,
illusory realm between denial to evasion, from “it’s not clear there
really was genocide” to “it’s an issue for the historians,” as Shimon
Peres once put it so outrageously and stupidly.
There are two main motives for the Israeli position. The first is the
importance of the relationship with Turkey, which for some reason
continues to deny any responsibility for the genocide, and uses heavy
pressure worldwide to prevent the historical responsibility for the
genocide to be laid at its door. The pressure does work, and not only
Israel, but other countries as well do the arithmetic of profits and
loss. The other motive is that recognition of another nation’s murder
would seem to erode the uniqueness of the Jewish Holocaust.
Five years ago, on the 85th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, I
was invited as education minister to the Armenian church in the Old
City of Jerusalem. This is what I said at the time:
“I am here, with you, as a human being, as a Jew, as an Israeli, and
as the minister of education in Israel. For many years, too many, you
were alone on this, your memorial day. I am aware of the special
significance of my presence here. Today, for the first time, you are
less alone.”
I recalled the Jewish American ambassador to Turkey at the time of the
slaughter, Henry Morgenthau, who called the massacre of the Armenians
“the greatest crime of modern history.” That good man had no idea what
would yet happen in the 20th century – who could have anticipated the
Jewish Holocaust? And I recalled Franz Werfel’s “The 40 Days of Musa
Dagh,” which came out in Germany in the spring of 1933 and shocked
millions of people and eventually, me, too, as a youth.
Summing up, I said, “We Jews, the main victims of murderous hatred,
must be doubly sensitive and identify with other victims. Those who
stand aside, turn away, cast a blind eye, make their calculations of
gains and losses, and are silent, always help the murderers and never
those who are being murdered. In our new history curriculum I want to
see a central chapter on genocide, and within it, an open reference to
the Armenian genocide. That is our duty to you and to ourselves.”
The Armenian community in Israel and the world took note of that
statement with satisfaction. Turkey complained vociferously, demanding
an explanation from the Israeli government. And “my government,” of
all governments, first stammered and then denied responsibility, and
explained that I spoke for myself. And not a remnant survives in the
new curriculum of the Livnat era.
Now it can be said. They were right. All the stammerers and deniers. I
really did not consult with anyone else and did not ask for
permission. What must be asked when the answer is known in advance,
and it is based on the wrong assumption that there is a contradiction
between a moral position and a political one? Just how beastly must we
be as humans, or as Haaretz wrote then in its editorial, “The teaching
of genocides must be at the top of the priorities of the values of the
Jewish people, the victim of the Holocaust, and no diplomacy of
interests can be allowed to stand in that way”?
The Israeli Foreign Ministry, and not only it, is always afraid of its
own shadow and thus it casts a dark shadow over us all as accomplices
to the “silence of the world.” The Dalai Lama, leader of the exiled
Tibetans, has visited here twice, and twice I was warned by
“officials” not to meet with him. It would mean a crisis in relations
with China, the exact same thing they say about Turkey. I rebuffed
those warnings in both cases. I have always believed that moral
policies pay off in the long run, while rotten policies end up losing.
And all this I will repeat in the capital of Armenia, only in my name,
of course.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress