"ISRAELI GENOCIDE SCHOLARS RESPOND TO REPORTED STATEMENTS OF AMBASSADOR GABY LEVY DENYING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE."
AZG Armenian Daily
13/03/2008
Genocide
OPEN LETTER TO MK TZIPI LIVNI, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ISRAEL MK
Tzipi Livni, Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Jerusalem
We are writing to express our shock, disbelief and horror at the
statements attributed to Ambassador to Turkey Gaby Levy by the website
of Sabah News (Turkey) that "what we [Israel] did in Gaza is not
genocide just like there is no Armenian genocide." These statements
were reportedly in response to comments made by Prime Minister Erdogan
of Turkey criticizing Israel’s response to the terror attacks from
Gaza. We would like to believe that he was misquoted.
Ambassador Levy is insultingly wrong in denying the Armenian genocide.
There is an overwhelming body of historical evidence from many separate
and independent bodies of information to show that the mass atrocities
experienced by the Armenians were a result of an intentional policy
on the part of the Turkish government at the time. It is precisely
this evidence of intent to kill and destroy, in whole or in part,
as defined by the UN Convention on Genocide, which is why these
atrocities constitute genocide. They were adjudged genocide by Raphael
Lemkin, the person who gave the world the word-concept of genocide,
and have been so adjudged by any number of impartial commissions and
professional authorities, including the International Association of
Genocide Scholars.
Israel’s ambassador is humiliatingly further misdirected on Gaza,
where it is Hamas, an organization with a genocidal agenda, which
is carrying out terror attacks aimed at killing, destroying and
expelling the entire population. Israel is defending itself against
the perpetrators of this genocidal agenda. The Grad rockets Hamas is
now firing at population centers in Israel come from Iran which has
expressed a sworn determination to wipe out the State of Israel.
Clearly Israel has never embarked on a genocidal program or action in
Gaza, but for the ambassador to prove his point as it were by comparing
Israel’s actions today in Gaza to the known genocidal activities
of the Ottoman Turks against the Armenians and other non-Moslem
minorities in 1915 and on is self-defeating in the extreme. The
aim of Israel’s military actions in Gaza is to stop the genocidal
terror aimed at the Israeli public. To link proof that Israel is not
the aggressor in Gaza with a denial of the validity of the Armenian
Genocide is seriously harmful to Israel. Ambassador Levy’s mission is
not to revise historical truth, but to represent Israel with honor,
self-respect, competence and integrity. He has failed the test on all
counts. By publicly declaring his denial of the Armenian genocide,
he paves the way for denial of all other genocidal threats, foremost
of which are those now facing Israel.
Israel’s relationship with Turkey is a matter of vital importance
to the two countries,. But this relationship does not require public
displays of obsequiousness and participation in genocide denial.
It does require Ambassador Levy to advise Turkey of the genocidal
threats from Hamas, and from Iran, its paymaster.
We call upon the Government to repudiate the remarks attributed to him.
Sincerely,
Prof. Yair Auron, PhD, Dept. of Sociology, Open University of Israel
[email protected] Prof. Israel W. Charny, PhD (retired Tel
Aviv University and Hebrew University), Executive Director, Institute
on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem, Editor, Encyclopedia of
Genocide [email protected] Prof. Elihu D. Richter, MD, MPH, Genocide
Prevention Program, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health
and Community Medicine, [email protected]