Distinguished Israeli scholar Yair Auron, Professor at Open University of Israel, was irate at his President’s choice of words, American-Armenian journalist Harut Sassounian, who is also publisher of The California Courier, wrote in his article published in Asbarez.

On January 31, Prof. Auron read a personal statement, titled: “Apology to my Armenian brothers,” at the newly-opened Komitas Museum in Yerevan.

“The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, made a remarkable speech with very touching sentences, identifying honestly and profoundly with the suffering of the Armenian people. But, intentionally, he did not use the term Armenian Genocide, neither in Hebrew nor in English.” Prof. Auron went on to disclose that Pres. Rivlin had told him personally that “he had not changed his opinion, but that he cannot declare it [genocide] as President of Israel.

“This, I can understand. But, in the last minute before the speech, somebody, probably from the Foreign Ministry of Israel, maybe even the Foreign Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, told him to include this terrible sentence: ‘Is our struggle, the struggle of this Assembly, against genocide, effective enough? Was it effective enough then in Bosnia? Was it effective in preventing the killing in Khojalu?’”

Prof. Auron continued his criticism: “Mr. President, you used the name of Khojalu in the context of genocide. You know well the difference between genocide and massacre. … Who proposed to you, Mr. President, who asked that you make this terrible error? You do not use the term genocide regarding the Armenian Genocide itself. Using the term genocide, in the context of one village in Nagorno-Karabagh, as if it was genocide, is unacceptable…. You do not dare to use the term genocide regarding the Armenian Genocide, and you define the massacre of this village, that I am sure you did not know its name just a few minutes before [your speech], as genocide.”

The professor concluded by pledging: “Let me, my Armenian brothers, apologize in my name and on behalf of many Israeli Jews. We are with you. We will not stop our struggle till Israel recognizes the Armenian Genocide.”