Description
Book SynopsisWhen the Turks demanded the cancellation of all lectures on the Armenian Genocide and that Armenian lecturers not be allowed to participate, the Israeli government followed suit, demanding the same of the then forthcoming First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide. This book follows the author's gutsy campaign against the Israeli government and his quest to successfully hold the conference in the face of censorship. A political whodunit based on previously secret Israel Foreign Ministry cables, this book investigates Israel's overall tragically unjust relationships to genocides of other peoples.
Charny also closely examines Elie Wiesel, who remains a great hero but is seen also as interfering with recognition of other peoples' genocidal tragedies, and Shimon Peres, who opposed recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Additional chapters by three famous leaders—a Turk (Ragip Zarakolu), an Armenian (Richard Hovannisian), and a Jew (Michael Berenbaum)—provide added perspectives.
Trade Review“In Israel’s Failed Response to the Armenian Genocide, Charny… revisits the [First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide], attempts by the Foreign Ministry to torpedo it, and issues a scathing indictment of Israel’s refusal, then and now, to officially recognize genocidal wars against other peoples. … [S]erious consideration of Charny’s claim – ‘the basic and horrendous commonality’ in all genocides, including the Armenian tragedy, should override obsessions about uniqueness and a consensus definition of the ‘category name’ – is as urgently necessary as it has ever been. … Charny makes a compelling case that the principal reason Israeli leaders opposed the conference was their determination to keep the Holocaust, the ‘unbearable cataclysmic tragedy’ of the Jewish people, ‘at the ultimate untouchable apex of a hierarchy of genocidal suffering... the greatest evil ever seen in human history.’ … Irrepressibly candid and combative at age 91, Charny has thrown down the gauntlet.”
— Glenn C. Altschuler, The Jerusalem Post
“Charny, one of the founders of the modern study of genocide and a strong fighter for the Armenians against the denial of their genocide by the Turks, does many things in this relatively short book [including] a denunciation of Israel’s support of nations and leaders who have committed genocidal acts. This brilliant book by a scholar and activist … tells a tale full of flame and fury but with a wisdom accumulated over nearly a century of living the ethics that he upholds—Charny is indefatigable, relentless and humanitarian.”
—Jack Nusan Porter,
The Jerusalem PostTable of ContentsTable of Contents
Preface
One is Either for Human Life or Not
Foreword
Who Really Lied? The Turks, Armenians, and Jews Revisited
Yair Auron
Introduction
Summary: The “Good Guys” (Israel) Turn Out to be the Bigger Liars
Chapter 1: The First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide in June 1982 in Tel Aviv Was a Milestone Event on Many Levels
Supplement 1: Program of Conference—How does One Summarize the Learning that Took Place at the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide?
Supplement 2: Responses of Participants in the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide
Supplement 3: Press and Other Public Responses to the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, June 1982
Supplement 4: “Their Holocaust,” Amos Elon, Haaretz, June 11, 1982
Chapter 2: The Conference Really Did Take Place and Very Meaningfully
Supplement: Letters Confronting Prime Minister Shimon Peres who Opposed the Conference, and in Later Years Continued Opposition to Recognizing the Armenian Genocide
Chapter 3: What was Elie Wiesel’s Real Position about the Armenians and about Addressing the Genocides of Many Non-Jewish Peoples Alongside the Holocaust?
Supplement: Gallery of Correspondence with Elie Wiesel
Chapter 4: Critique: How Should We Have Handled the Threats to Jewish Lives?
Chapter 5: Israel’s Tragically Immoral Denials of, and indifference to, the Genocides of Other Peoples
Chapter 6: Israel’s Denial-Concealment of the Cruelty, Genocidal Expulsions, and Massacres of Arabs in the Nonetheless Entirely Just War of Independence: A Striking Chapter of the Universal Challenge to All Peoples to Respect and Protect Life
Three Contemporary Updates: The Voices of a Distinguished Contemporary Turk, an Armenian, and a Jew
Chapter 7: A Contemporary Turk: Ragip Zarakolu—The Banality of Denial
Chapter 8: A Contemporary Armenian: Richard G. Hovannisian: The Armenian Genocide and Extreme Denial
Chapter 9: A Contemporary Jew: Michael Berenbaum—The Armenian Genocide, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Israel
Chapter 10: Israel’s Continuing Denial of the Armenian Genocide
Raphael Ahren, “Why Israel Still Refuses to Recognize a Century-Old Genocide,” Times of Israel, April 24, 2015
Israel Charny with Yair Auron, “If Not Now, When Will Israel Recognize the Armenian Genocide?,” California Courier January 9, 2020
Supplementary Chapter 11: Marc I. Sherman: Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem—Highlights of the Story of the First Institute on Genocide in the World
Afterword
Standing Up for Truth and Justice against Excessive Power
Acknowledgments and Heartfelt Thanks
About the Author
Index
Ten Commandments for Sovereign Nations and Genocide Scholars
Samuel Totten
