Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged the genocides of Armenians, Pontic Greeks, and Assyrians by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, while continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Netanyahu appeared on a podcast hosted by the right-wing American podcaster Patrick Bet-David, who is of Assyrian and Armenian descent.
When Bet-David asked him why Israel hadn't recognised the Ottoman Empire's campaigns of killings against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontic Greeks, Netanyahu said: "Yeah, I just did, here you go," according to the Australia-based Greek news website Neos Kosmos.
Israel had previously been reluctant to discuss the genocide of Armenians and other Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire for fear of upsetting relations with Turkey. However, ties with Ankara have become increasingly strained amid Israel's brutal war on Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks from the Pontus region near the Black Sea were deported and killed by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.
Turkey denies the genocides and claims that massacres were mutual, with Turks and other Muslims also being killed in territories the Ottoman Empire lost during its decline.
According to Netanyahu, the Israeli parliament has already acknowledged the genocides, but he emphasised that this was his personal endorsement that they happened.
Netanyahu’s remarks come as Israel continues its own genocidal assault on Gaza, imposing a siege on the devastated territory, which has led to the death of at least 300 people through deliberate starvation, and killing scores of people every day in airstrikes.
His government has refused any ceasefire deal that would end the war and release Israeli captives held by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
According to the Gaza health ministry, 62,819 people have been killed so far as a result of Israel’s war. The true death toll is believed to be much higher, with thousands of uncounted victims trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.