A resolution for Israel to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide will be submitted at the government meeting on Sunday by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
Sa’ar, announcing the resolution in a late Thursday post to X/Twitter, said that the proposed resolution will afterward be brought before the Knesset for a vote.
“Recognizing the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the final years of the Ottoman Empire is both a moral and historical duty,” Sa’ar affirmed. “We must also firmly condemn any denial, minimization, or distortion of the historical truth.”
“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 books, mainly by Turkey,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
As of 2026, 32 UN member states, including the United States, Canada, Russia, and Germany, have formally recognized the genocide.
The Holy See and the European Parliament have also officially recognized the genocide.
Over 200 memorials have been erected across 32 countries to commemorate the event.
What is the Armenian Genocide?
The Armenian Genocide began in April 1915 and led to the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Armenians, as well as the systematic destruction of their heritage and culture.
Turkey denies that the massacres, imprisonment, and forced deportation of Armenians amounted to genocide, and Israel long avoided recognizing it as such due to diplomatic sensitivities.
However, Israel has taken several steps on the matter since the deterioration of relations with Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For example, last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated for the first time that he recognized the Armenian Genocide.