News of incidents which took place in Jerusalem on January 27 through 29 have alarmed the world Armenian community, as a group of extremist Jewish settlers have attacked an Armenian restaurant and the Armenian Patriarchate, shouting incendiary slogans, such as “Death to the Arabs, Death to the Christians.”
When cornered in this recent incident, the Armenians, who trace their history in the Holy City to the sixth century AD, reminded their attackers, who asked a group in the Armenian Quarter to leave the country, that this was their neighborhood. The attackers shouted back, “You don’t have a neighborhood here. This is our country. Get out.”
This is not a new phenomenon, as these attacks have been taking place for many years. This new surge is the reflection of the new extremist Israeli government, some of whose members come from the same xenophobic quarters as the assailants. While Palestinian youth are sentenced to long prison terms for having thrown stones, the police stations only present a revolving door for such settler attackers.
Since the Genocide and the accompanying deportations, the Jerusalem Armenian community had been holding steady at 15,000-strong, sometimes numbering even higher. The fact that the community has shrunk today to fewer than 1,500 indicates that indeed, they “don’t have a neighborhood here.”
Armenians and Jews have been bound together by fate as two victims of mass genocides in the 20th century. And this bond is strong, despite the divergence of their politics over the years. The fact that the Israeli government has refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide angers the majority of Jews inside Israel and around the world, as it does Armenians.
During the recent 44-Day War, Israel was a partner in crime with Azerbaijan, not only by providing deadly drones to the Baku government, but also sometimes operating those drones, which killed thousands of Armenians. In one instance, the manufacturer of the Israeli drones Aeronautics Ltd., was caught red-handed in 2017 demonstrating the power of their suicide drones by sending them into Armenia to attack army positions as part of its sales pitch, and only received a slap on the wrist.