Jewish Chronicle
July 1 2010
Israel’s protests — in the wake of the flotilla crisis — at Turkish
misdeeds are cynical in the extreme
By Keith Kahn-Harris, July 1, 2010
In the wake of the flotilla crisis, Israel’s relations with Turkey
have taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Once Israel’s closest ally
in the region, both countries fearing Islamism together with Iranian
and Arab expansionism, the alliance now hangs by a thread.
As the geopolitical tectonic plates shift, so does the rhetoric of
Israel’s defenders. Into the crosshairs of Hasbara-niks and pro-Israel
campaigners comes the Turkish state. Turkey certainly has many
deeply disturbing features that can and should be highlighted. To say
nothing of its recent Islamist turn, this is a country that continues
to oppress the Kurdish people and of course in 1917 carried out a
genocide in its slaughter of over one million Armenians. Not only has
Turkey never apologised for the genocide, it has vigorously denied it,
protesting against commemorations of the slaughter and persecuting
Turkish writers who have tried to come to terms with the past.
In recent Israeli demonstrations against Turkey and in vigils outside
its embassy, placards have been prominently displayed reminding the
world of the Armenian genocide. But until very recently not only were
Turkish human rights abuses – past and present – ignored by Israel
and its supporters, they were among the most active in perpetuating
the denial of the Armenian genocide.
In his book The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide,
Yair Auron recounts the shameful history of Israel’s complicity
in Armenian genocide denial. Driven by short-term political
considerations, Israeli governments have resisted recognising the
genocide and in 1982 tried to pressure Israeli scholars from taking
part in an international conference on the subject.
In the diaspora, the record of most Jewish and pro-Israel organisations
has been equally woeful. There was pressure on the Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington DC not to mention the Armenian genocide. In
2007, the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman was central to the
successful suppression of a renewed attempt at commemoration.
And now? With the war of words between Turkey and Israel growing
ever more virulent and with grassroots pro-Israel groups taking
every opportunity to remind the world of Turkish atrocities, Jewish
and Israeli complicity in Armenian genocide denial looks likely to
end. As Morris Amitay, a former executive director of AIPAC has said:
“If someone asked me now if I would try to protect Turkey in Congress,
my response would be, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.'”
But if cynically denying genocide was bad then cynically affirming
it is almost as repellent. It undermines moral credibility and –
most dangerously given the spread of Holocaust denial in the Muslim
world – risks tarring Shoah commemoration with the same cynicism.
It may be tempting to put consideration for Israel’s strategic
interests above respect for history and human rights, but it should be
resisted. If Turkey is now too morally tainted to be worthy of having
Israel as an ally, then it never was a worthy ally. When the next
dodgy alliance rears its head (China? Russia?) Israel and its friends
should remember the Turkish example and put moral survival first.
Keith Kahn-Harris is honorary research fellow at the Centre for
Religion and Society, Birkbeck College. His book (co-authored with
Ben Gidley) ‘Turbulent Times; The British Jewish Community Today’
will be published this month.