TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Cabinet has unanimously voted to formally label the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide, a significant diplomatic step that still requires approval from the country’s parliament.
The decision reflects the increasingly troubled relationship between Israel and Turkey. Turkey has long and aggressively pushed other nations not to officially classify the Armenian deaths as genocide, while Armenian advocates have worked just as hard to gain that recognition.
Scholars and historians estimate that as many as 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives at the hands of Ottoman Turks around 1915 — an event widely regarded by academics as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey rejects that characterization, arguing the death toll has been exaggerated and that those who died were casualties of civil conflict and widespread unrest.
For many years, Israel deliberately avoided taking an official stance on the matter to preserve its relationship with Turkey. However, those ties have steadily deteriorated over the past two decades, and have grown especially strained in recent years amid ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and involving Iran.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who brought the proposal before the government, spoke strongly in support of the recognition. “Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalized campaign of denial and minimization, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government,” he said.
Saar pointed out that Israeli leaders — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — have previously referred to the violence against Armenians as a genocide in personal statements. However, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has never put the matter to a formal vote.
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” Saar declared on Sunday, describing the recognition as a “moral and historical duty.”
He also noted that 32 other nations — among them the United States, Syria and Lebanon — have already officially classified the killings as genocide. It remains unclear when the Cabinet’s unanimous decision will be brought before parliament for a vote. Turkey had not issued any public response as of Sunday.
Israel and Turkey were once considered close allies, but that partnership began unraveling with the rise of Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prompting Israel to reconsider its long-held silence on the Armenian question.
The move comes as Israel itself faces genocide accusations from multiple fronts, including from the United Nations and Turkey, related to its military offensive in Gaza. Israel, a nation established in the aftermath of the Holocaust, strongly denies those allegations.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023. Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, reports that more than 73,000 people have been killed, with roughly half being women and children. Israel maintains that it does not deliberately target civilians and accuses Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Just last week, a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations accused Israel of intentionally shooting children in Gaza and repeated claims that Israel’s actions amount to genocide. Israel dismissed the report as a “libelous sham.”
