Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that, personally, he recognizes the Armenian genocide in an interview with Patrick Bet-David on Tuesday.
Bet-David, hosting the prime minister on the PBD Podcast, asked Netanyahu why Israel was so reluctant to recognize the massacre committed by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 as a genocide, given the context of the worldwide recognition of the Holocaust.
Previous attempts to pass bill recognizing Armenian Genocide in the Knesset
Netanyahu informed the host that the Knesset recently passed a bill recognizing the massacre as genocide, whereby Bet-David proceeded to press him for his personal recognition.
Netanyahu responded: “I just did.”
Bet-David then said that as an ethnic Armenian Assyrian himself, he was particularly interested in the subject and that many Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks want to hear a recognition of the Armenian genocide from world leaders.
This issue, however, remains a controversial topic. Case in point, the US did not recognize the Armenian genocide until former president Joe Biden assumed office in 2021.
This resulted in Turkey, which vehemently denies that the Armenians suffered a genocide at the hands of its ancestors, summoning the US ambassador to denounce Washington’s move.