The Israeli government has approved a proposal to designate the mass extermination of Armenian Christians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar posted Sunday on X. “I thank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the support and the government ministers for their unanimous support in approving the resolution proposal that I initiated for Israel’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.”
Mr. Sa’ar said the Israeli government has “fulfilled a moral obligation by recognizing the historical truth and rejecting attempts to deny it.”
For decades, Jerusalem avoided formally recognizing the mass killings and deportations of more than 1.5 million Armenians during World War I in order to preserve strategic and economic ties with Turkey.
Mr. Netanyahu’s Cabinet unanimously approved the resolution on Sunday. After it is approved by the Knesset, Israel will join 32 countries — including the United States — that have passed parliamentary or governmental resolutions acknowledging the Armenian genocide.
Turkey’s government objects to the term “genocide” to describe the atrocities against the Armenian population by the Ottoman Empire that began in 1915. Ankara has never denied that a large number of Armenians died during the period, but it has argued that it was a tragic consequence of World War I, rather than a systematic campaign of extermination.
The Israeli Cabinet vote comes amid growing tensions between Turkey and Israel, which had robust relations before the election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war against Hamas.
In a statement to Turkish media, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz called the Israeli resolution “an attempt to cover up their own crimes.”
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