In first, Netanyahu says he recognizes Armenian Genocide in  Ottoman  Empire

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

Asked by Patrick Bet-David on his podcast 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."

The Times of Israel recalls that Armenians have long sought  international recognition of the killings by the Ottoman Empire,  which reportedly left some 1.5 million of their people dead, as a  genocide. Turkey - the Ottoman Empire's successor state - strongly  rejects the allegation that the massacres, imprisonment and forced  deportation of Armenians amounted to genocide.

In 2001, when relations with Turkey were at an apex, 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."

More than a decade later, in June 2011, it was MK Arye Eldad of the  far-right National Union party who introduced a bill to declare every  April 24 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. A few weeks earlier, the  Knesset had held its first discussion on recognizing the genocide. A  majority seemed to support recognition, but the issue was never put  to a vote.

Even Israel's previous president, Reuven Rivlin, was an outspoken  advocate for the recognition of the Armenian genocide. "It's  unthinkable for the Knesset to ignore this tragedy," Rivlin said when  he was the Knesset speaker for the Likud party, before becoming  president. "We demand that people don't deny the Holocaust, and we  can't ignore the tragedy of another nation."

But as president, his priorities shifted dramatically. During  a 2015  UN address, Rivlin spoke at length about the massacre of Armenians a  century before. But he tiptoed around recognition. Speaking in  Hebrew, Rivlin referred to the  retzah bnei ha'am ha' armeni, which  means "the murder of the members of the Armenian nation," which hints  at the Hebrew term for genocide,  retsa am, but falls shorts of using  the term itself.

He also decided as president not to renew his signature on an annual  petition calling on Israel to recognize the genocide.  A 2018 Knesset  vote on recognizing the  genocide was cancelled to a lack of  coalition support.