Israel has partially recognized the Armenian Genocide, but it is necessary to understand whether it is being honest with itself, wrote Leora Eisenberg, blogger of Times of Israel, who shoots a documentary about the Armenian district of Jerusalem.
“Tucked away between the constant thud of children’s feet in the Jewish Quarter and the intoxicating smell of the Arab shuk is the Armenian Quarter. Almost alarmingly quiet, the calmest quarter is walled off — and those who have lived in the Old City for years are unlikely to have ever entered.
I lower my head to squeeze through the arch, and am greeted by a large square. You might see children running to the soccer field, old men playing backgammon, or maybe a priest walking to the seminary across the street.
You will probably hear Armenian, but some of the young deacons might be speaking Russian. The stones are the same as those of any other quarter, but the crosses that decorate the area are uniquely Armenian.”
“Armenians have been in Jerusalem, uninterrupted, since the seventh century.”
“We asked our interviewees a variety of questions — where are they from, where are their parents from, what do you like most about Jerusalem, etc. But the question that taught us the most was the following:
“What is your struggle, as an Armenian in Israel?”
Each priest whom I asked paused for moment.
“Let the world be honest,” said one. “The Armenian Genocide is a fact. Whether or not you recognize it, it happened.”
“It is indeed our ethical prerogative to recognize the massacre and deportation of 1.5 million+ people.[…] But, in my opinion, we, as human beings, must award all those massacred the humanity that they were systematically denied.”
“Geopolitical concerns certainly play a role here; I can’t deny that relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan certainly are important. But relations with Armenia and Israel’s Armenian community are not trivial — and, at the end of the day, Israel’s moral compass must point in the direction of recognizing the genocide that Hitler trivialized with his famous words: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Answer: we should.
It seems that we speak about it every few months in Israel. We bring it to one Knesset committee and then another. On August 1, we finally had some success — the Education, Culture and Sports Committee finally recognized the Armenian Genocide with support ranging from the far right to the far left. Certainly a step forward — but is Israel, as the first priest said, being honest with itself?” Eisenberg writes.
