Representatives of the Armenian community in Jerusalem along with Hebrew University professors and students paid tribute to the Armenians Genocide victims on Tuesday.
Honorary Consul of Armenia in Jerusalem, Tsolag Momjian, and Reverend Father Samuel Aghoyan, who represented the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, also attended the event, i24NEWS reports.
In his speech, the Honorary Consul expressed hope that one day Israel will recognize the Armenian Genocide. He extended words of solidarity to the Jewish people on occasion of the Holocaust anniversary.
Reverend Father Samuel Aghoyan, for his part, noted that the world was silent then and never tried to stop the massacre of more than one and half million Armenians. “My parents were the lucky ones to escape from being killed but their relatives and brothers were the victims,'' he said, adding that the Israeli government does not have the courage to side with justice by recognizing the historical fact of Genocide.
“It seems that the world has not been changed since 1915, because today we hear of and witness new genocide being carried out on different scales and in different parts of the world,'' the Reverend Father said, stressing that the great powers are shutting their eyes to these crimes.
Teacher of Armenian history and cultural studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yoav Loeff, noted that Israel does not recognize the Armenian Genocide for three main reasons, including the reluctance to ruin its diplomatic ties with Turkey and Azerbaijan. But, according to Loeff, this is not the central reason. In his words, there is a fear in Israeli society that the Armenian Genocide will belittle the Jewish Holocaust in the eyes of Israelis. The teacher also thinks that teaching about the Holocaust omitting the Armenian Genocide is a mistake.
“The Nazis had great teachers,” the professor said.
In 2016, the Knesset Education and Sports Committee recognized the Armenian Genocide. Although, in Loeff's words, this was a landmark shift in Israeli policy, this is not enough.
