MKs take part in ceremony marking 100 years since Armenian genocide

jpost.com: Labor MK Dr. Nachman Shai and Likud MK Dr. Anat Berko represented Israel at a ceremony commemorating 100 years since the Armenian genocidein Yerevan. 

"I am proud to represent the State of Israel and the Jewish people at this historic event," Shai said in a conversation with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan."We understand, perhaps more than any other people, the pain and suffering of the Armenian people and we share in this terrible tragedy with you."

The Israeli delegation does not, however, mark a change in the government’s policy to not officially recognize the genocide, Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon has said, calling it a "gesture of friendship." 

Meretz leader MK Zehava Gal-On spoke on Friday morning at an Armenian church ceremony, saying the delegation, which was coordinated through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "cannot distract from the fact that the Israeli government continues to be a part of the Armenian genocide denial. 

"The Foreign Ministry has instructed the delegation to address the human tragedy of the Armenian genocide and not to refer to it as the murder of a nation," she said.

Gal-On added: "Especially as the Jewish nation that suffered a Holocaust, that knows the meaning of Holocaust denial and still fights that denial today, it is our primary moral obligation to be sensitive to other nations and not to deny that the phenomenon of genocide has occurred in the past and continues to take place today."  

To date only 22 states including Armenia officially recognize the 1915 massacres as a genocide, including Canada, France and Germany – but not the US.