Yerakouyn.com. Yesh Atid opposition party in Israel is going to submit a bill to the Knesset (Parliament of Israel) which supposes official recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Leader of the party Yair Lapid is convinced that Israel should have recognized this historical fact long ago.
He gave an interview to ARMENPRESS talking about the Armenian Genocide recognition bill, as well as the recent Turkish-Israeli tense relations.
-Mr. Lapid, you have recently announced that your Yesh Atid party is going to submit an Armenian Genocide recognition bill to the Knesset. At what stage are the preparation works of the bill and when do you plan to submit it to the parliament?
-The bill is written and we are in the process of gathering signatures to support the bill from across the Knesset. We would like for the bill to have the support of as many Knesset Members as possible and believe we will be able to move forward with it very soon.
-Why does Israel, which suffered the Holocaust, avoid recognizing the Armenian Genocide?
-Many Israeli leaders have personally expressed their recognition of the Armenian Genocide which is a historical fact and recently the Knesset Education Committee announced its recognition of the genocide as well. Previous Israeli governments have avoided officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide as a result of misguided strategic calculations. It is something we should have done long ago because above all it is morally the right thing to do. With the aggressive behavior of President Erdogan, now there are no more excuses for anyone to avoid doing the right thing.
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Photo – Yair Lapid (Yerakouyn.com)