The Israeli cabinet unanimously approved on Sunday a corresponding resolution which was proposed by Foreign Minister Foreign Gideon Saar and must be approved by the country’s parliament.
“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, mainly by the Turkish government,” Saar told the cabinet. “It is widely believed that the Ottoman Empire committed crimes amounting to genocide in a systematic manner, with the aim of destroying the Armenian people.”
Recognizing the deaths of some 1.5 Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire as genocide is “both a moral and historical duty” for the Jewish state, he said in remarks cited by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Saar stressed the fact that 32 other countries, including the United States, have already done so.
Successive Israeli governments had for decades opposed Armenian genocide recognition lest it antagonize Turkey, a former security partner of Israel. Turkish-Israeli relations have steadily deteriorated over the past decade. They hit a new low during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Condemning the current Israeli government’s move on Monday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said it is designed to cover up Israel’s “genocide against Gazans.” It said Ankara will continue to seek an “end to Israel’s expansionist and destabilizing policies in the region.”
There was no official reaction from Armenia and its Foreign Ministry, in particular, as of Monday evening. Justice Minister Srbuhi Galian said she has “no desire” to comment on the development when she was approached by reporters. Two pro-government lawmakers affiliated with an Armenia-Israel parliamentary friendship group also pointedly declined to comment.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declared last year that his government will not strive to get more countries and international bodies to recognize the genocide. Pashinian’s stance, which reflects his rapprochement with Ankara, was denounced by his political opponents as well as Armenian Diaspora groups that have long been at the forefront of the recognition campaign.
Predictably, Armenian opposition figures hailed the Israeli government’s decision while acknowledging its connection with Israel’s tensions with Turkey. Artur Khachatrian of the opposition Hayastan alliance said it is “in our national interest.”
“We positively assess the proposed resolution and expect that the Knesset will vote for it,” said Khachatrian. “The whole world must recognize and condemn the Armenian genocide. And it is very amazing that there are only a few states in the world that say this process should be stopped: Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.”
It was not clear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will try to push the resolution through the Knesset before the Israeli parliament goes into recess on July 16 ahead of general elections expected in October.
Netanyahu first indicated a change in his country’s policy on the Armenian genocide issue in an August 2025 interview with an American podcaster. He said he believes the World War One-era massacres by the Ottoman Turks of Armenians as well as Assyrians and Greeks constituted genocide.