Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recognition of the Armenian genocide on Tuesday during an interview with right-wing media personality Patrick Bet David has led people online to accuse Netanyahu of being “hypocritical”.
Bet David asked Netanyahu on his PBD podcast why Israel had yet to recognise the killings that wiped out most of Turkey’s Christian population. Netanyahu answered that he accepted the Ottoman Empire’s killing of more than 1.5 million Armenians, as well as hundreds of thousands of Assyrians and Greeks, during World War I as genocide.
“In fact, I think we have. I think the Knesset passed a resolution to that effect,” Netanyahu responded, possibly referring to MPs on the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee issuing a resolution that recognised the genocide in 2016, according to what many on social media said.
When asked by Bet David if he recognises the Armenian genocide himself, Netanyahu said, “I just did.”
