Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein urged to recognize suffering of the Armenian people at a plenum discussion of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“As Jews, we must recognize the suffering of the Armenian people. This discussion does not blame any modern country, rather it shows that we identify with the victims of the massacre and its terrible outcome,” he said on Tuesday, May 13.

“We are not placing blame; we are acting like Jews and being faithful to the truth and the suffering of another people,” Edelstein continued. “We cannot deny history and hold back human values out of diplomatic or political caution.”

He spoke in response to a motion to the agenda by Meretz chairwoman Zehava Gal-On, calling for the government to recognize the Armenian Genocide before its 100th anniversary next year.

“The government should not sacrifice the recognition in the name of temporary interests,” she said. “Every time there’s a different diplomatic situation. When we’re for relations with Turkey, we don’t recognize the Genocide and then there’s the Marmara [Turkish Gaza protest ship in 2010] and we change our mind.”

The Meretz leader pointed out that many MKs are children of Holocaust survivors.

“As a nation that experienced the Holocaust, we cannot continue to ignore the Armenian Genocide because of irrelevant considerations,” she said.

According to MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud Beytenu), the Jewish People were “next in line” after the Armenians to be killed.

“Whoever thought of the Final Solution got the impression that, when the day comes, the world will be silent, as it was about the Armenians. It is hard for me to forgive other nations for ignoring our tragedy and we cannot ignore another nation’s tragedy. That is our moral obligation as people and Jews,” Rivlin said. A recent expression of regret from a Turkish official is connected to the fact that many countries, including Israel, refuse to ignore the genocide, Rivlin added.

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Likud Beytenu) responded to the motion in Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s place, saying that as Jews and Israelis, there is a moral obligation to recognize human tragedies, including the Armenian Genocide.

When the discussion ended, the motion was moved to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as opposed to the Knesset Education Committee as Gal- On proposed. She accused Liberman of sending MK Shimon Ohayon (Likud Beytenu) to make sure the motion was moved to the classified committee in order to “bury” it.