Israeli Foreign Ministry Questions Veracity of Genocide, Says Proof Needed - Asbarez Online, 19 Febuary 2002
Send an e-mail to the Israeli Foreign Ministry refuting their denial of the Armenian Genocide.
You can chose to cut and paste the message below, though make sure to include your name at the bottom of the e-mail.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mail: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister, Hakirya, Romema, Jerusalem 91950, Israel
Dear Shimon Peres
I was saddened to learn about the policy that your Foreign Ministry department is following regarding its denial of the Armenian genocide. I understand that your ministry has released a statement saying that the Armenian W.W.I experience "cannot be compared to genocide", and that, "[t]his issue requires extensive research by a wide spectrum of people and academic dialogue that are based on testimony and proof", which implies that this has not already taken place.
I am disappointed that the government of Israel, which represents a people that so tragically suffered during the W.W.II Holocaust, should chose to negate so virulently the ordeal inflicted during the W.W.I Armenian genocide.
Your denial seems clearly motivated by wanting to further your bilateral relationship with Turkey, at a time when the Turkish government is re-negotiated with France a $200-million contract to modernise navigation systems on Turkish F-16s.
As you are aware the Israeli Government stepped in to procure a number of defence deals with the Turkish Government when France was blocked from tendering military contracts, after it recognised the Armenian Genocide in January of 2001.
As such, it is becoming increasingly apparent, that your policy of genocide denial is linked to your tendering for military contracts with Turkey. If this is the case, and you are presently competing with France for the F-16 contract, such a callous policy of trying to gain favour through genocide denial reaches new depths of impropriety.
You and your Ministry should take note of the group of 55 Jewish and Israeli scholars who in August of 2001 signed a petition stating: "As Jews, we share many similarities with the Armenian people. We were both victims of genocide during the twentieth-century and have survived despite those who would deny us the right to exist".
Those who signed included professors at Israeli Universities and Institutions including…
· Prof. Israel Charney, Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem.
· Prof. Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
As well as members of Holocaust Institutes…
· Deborah Dwork, Center for Holocaust Studies, Clark University.
· Dr. Stephen Feinstein, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota.
· Stephen M. Goldman, The Florida Holocaust Museum.
As well as faculty members of Jewish Studies and Jewish History programmes at
· Emory University, Atlanta.
· Hebrew College, Boston.
· Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.
· University of Alabama.
· Colgate University, New York.
· USC Hillel, Los Angeles.
· Brown University, Rhode Island.
· Brandeis University, Massachusetts.
· State University of New York, New Paltz.
In total, Jewish members of over 40 academic and other institutions signed this petition, hopefully you will take heed of their sentiments next time your Ministry suggest that this issue requires "academic dialogue… based on testimony and proof".
Yours sincerely