Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday for the first time that he recognizes the genocide carried out by Ottoman Empire against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in the early 20th century, reports The Times of Israel.

Asked by a podcast host why Israel does not recognize the Armenian Genocide, Netanyahu said, “I think we have. I think the Knesset passed a resolution to that effect,” though no such legislation has been passed into law.

Pressed on why no Israeli prime minister has recognized the genocide, Netanyahu responds, “I just did. Here you go.”

In 2001, when relations with Turkey were at an apex, Israel’s then-foreign minister Shimon Peres outright denied “Armenian allegations,” denouncing them as an effort to create a parallel with the Holocaust.

“Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. What the Armenians went through is a tragedy, but not genocide,” he said.

Yet there have also been attempts by prominent politicians to move Israeli policy.

In 2000, then-education minister Yossi Sarid of the left-wing Meretz party announced plans to place the Armenian Genocide on Israel’s history curricula.

“Genocide is a crime against humanity and there is nothing more horrible and odious than genocide. One of the objectives of our education — our main objective — is to instill sensitivity to the harm to the innocent based on nationality alone,” he said on the 85th anniversary of the massacre. “We Jews, as principal victims of murderous hatred, are doubly obligated to be sensitive, to identify with other victims.”