Bill recognizing Armenian Genocide to be submitted to Israeli parliament

PanARMENIAN.Net - Yair Lapid, the leader of the Israeli political party Yesh Atid, has said that his party would lodge a bill in the Knesset recognizing the Armenian Genocide — a step Israel has traditionally refrained from taking over fears of angering Turkey, with which Israel re-established ties in 2016, The Times of Israel reports

The Yesh Atid leader also called for “burying the bad idea” to build a gas pipeline to Turkey and for Israel to “upgrade its support for the creation of an independent Kurdish state” and to “assist the Kurds together with the United States and with countries in the region.”

His comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday called Israel a “terrorist state” that “kills children.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in response, accused the Turkish leader of bombing Kurdish civilians and helping terrorists murder innocent people. On Sunday evening, Turkey accused Israel of “massacring” thousands of Palestinians.

“Someone who denies the murder of hundreds of thousands of children in the Armenian Genocide won’t lecture us. Someone who cooperated with Iran and Hezbollah in Syria, in a war which has left half a million dead, won’t lecture us,” added Lapid. .