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+972 Magazine - Independent commentary from Israel and the Palestinian
territories
April 25 2013
Israel, Armenians and the question of genocide
by By Dahlia Scheindlin
When Israel remembers the Holocaust, why does it think only of Jews?
History has proven time and again that the Jews are not unique for
having suffered genocidal policies. The many debates about preventing
such tragedies have so far not helped populations that suffered mass
killings and expulsions, with intent to destroy them for their
national, religious or ethnic identity - even in recent decades.
Therefore the politicization of the Armenian genocide in Israel in the
context of Israel-Turkey relations, described with great eloquence by
Akiva Eldar in al-Monitor, is not only wrong; it calls into question
whether Israel is truly committed to `never again' when it comes to
people who are not Jews.
In fact, Jews need not look outside their own community to understand
the categorical need to universalize the awful lessons of the
Holocaust. Eldar points out that one of the greatest advocates of this
position was himself a victim:
The man who coined the term genocide and fought for adoption of the
treaty [1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide - ds] was the Jewish-Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, whose
entire family was annihilated in the Holocaust. He himself managed to
flee to the United States. Lemkin referred specifically to the
Armenian annihilation as an act of genocide. This position was never
adopted by Israeli governments. The official Israeli position was
summed up in 2001 in an interview by then-Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres with the Turkish Daily News: `The Armenians suffered a tragedy,'
he said, `but not genocide.'
Tragically, Eldar's description of the feeling many Knesset members
hold towards this question mirrors what I feel in Israeli society:
For them, any attempt to hint that other peoples were also persecuted
and massacred for racist reasons is considered `disrespect for the
Holocaust' (they themselves, on the other hand, often use the term
`Holocaust,' especially to scare the Israeli public with the Iranian
threat). They do not define the Armenian genocide as a
human-Jewish-ethical issue.
To the argument that recognition of the Armenian experience threatens
very immediate political needs related to Turkey, I hope that Turkish
leaders and people see it differently. Remembering horrors suffered by
others would say more about Israel's values than it does about Turkey.
Anyone can commit terrible crimes against innocents, Jews included. I
wish for a country that rises above its own trauma to recall, support
and help victims anywhere.
I can scarcely believe this needs to be said, but apparently it bears
repeating: we must acknowledge that all human beings are at risk of
falling victims to genocidal acts, or of perpetrating such acts
themselves. The same people can be in both positions. To deny this
seems to me as awful and dangerous as Holocaust denial itself.
http://972mag.com/israel-armenians-and-the-question-of-genocide/69977/
territories
April 25 2013
Israel, Armenians and the question of genocide
by By Dahlia Scheindlin
When Israel remembers the Holocaust, why does it think only of Jews?
History has proven time and again that the Jews are not unique for
having suffered genocidal policies. The many debates about preventing
such tragedies have so far not helped populations that suffered mass
killings and expulsions, with intent to destroy them for their
national, religious or ethnic identity - even in recent decades.
Therefore the politicization of the Armenian genocide in Israel in the
context of Israel-Turkey relations, described with great eloquence by
Akiva Eldar in al-Monitor, is not only wrong; it calls into question
whether Israel is truly committed to `never again' when it comes to
people who are not Jews.
In fact, Jews need not look outside their own community to understand
the categorical need to universalize the awful lessons of the
Holocaust. Eldar points out that one of the greatest advocates of this
position was himself a victim:
The man who coined the term genocide and fought for adoption of the
treaty [1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide - ds] was the Jewish-Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, whose
entire family was annihilated in the Holocaust. He himself managed to
flee to the United States. Lemkin referred specifically to the
Armenian annihilation as an act of genocide. This position was never
adopted by Israeli governments. The official Israeli position was
summed up in 2001 in an interview by then-Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres with the Turkish Daily News: `The Armenians suffered a tragedy,'
he said, `but not genocide.'
Tragically, Eldar's description of the feeling many Knesset members
hold towards this question mirrors what I feel in Israeli society:
For them, any attempt to hint that other peoples were also persecuted
and massacred for racist reasons is considered `disrespect for the
Holocaust' (they themselves, on the other hand, often use the term
`Holocaust,' especially to scare the Israeli public with the Iranian
threat). They do not define the Armenian genocide as a
human-Jewish-ethical issue.
To the argument that recognition of the Armenian experience threatens
very immediate political needs related to Turkey, I hope that Turkish
leaders and people see it differently. Remembering horrors suffered by
others would say more about Israel's values than it does about Turkey.
Anyone can commit terrible crimes against innocents, Jews included. I
wish for a country that rises above its own trauma to recall, support
and help victims anywhere.
I can scarcely believe this needs to be said, but apparently it bears
repeating: we must acknowledge that all human beings are at risk of
falling victims to genocidal acts, or of perpetrating such acts
themselves. The same people can be in both positions. To deny this
seems to me as awful and dangerous as Holocaust denial itself.
http://972mag.com/israel-armenians-and-the-question-of-genocide/69977/