Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked a parliamentary vote on formally recognizing the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide following objections from Azerbaijan, Haaretz reported Sunday, citing an Israeli source familiar with the matter.
Israel’s cabinet unanimously approved Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s proposal to recognize the mass killings and deportations as genocide on June 28. The measure still required approval by the Knesset.
According to Haaretz, Netanyahu blocked the vote after Hikmat Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, contacted the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office to express Baku’s objections.
Israeli officials subsequently informed Azerbaijan that the measure had been removed from the Knesset’s agenda, preventing a vote before parliament began its summer recess last week, the newspaper said.
Sa’ar’s office denied that Netanyahu had intervened to cancel the vote but did not explain why it was removed from the agenda.
“There is a government decision, and it was approved unanimously,” his office said. “It will not be changed, and that is the important and historic fact.”
Netanyahu’s office and Hajiyev did not respond to Haaretz’s requests for comment.
Azerbaijan formally condemned the Israeli cabinet decision on June 29 and called on the government to reconsider it.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry described the recognition as a distortion of the events of 1915 and said turning a complex historical dispute into a political decision would deepen regional divisions rather than promote reconciliation.
The Azerbaijani news website Haqqin.az reported earlier this month that Israel had responded to Baku’s concerns by halting the initiative and taking steps to prevent it from returning to the Knesset’s agenda.
Azerbaijan is an important regional partner and defense customer of Israel. Israel supplied weapons to Baku during its conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijan is a significant energy supplier to Israel and shares a border with Iran.
Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, also strongly denounced the cabinet decision last month, describing it as a political move intended to divert attention from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Turkey denies the genocide designation, arguing that both Armenians and Muslims died amid civil conflict, famine and unrest during World War I.
Armenians say some 1.5 million people were killed in systematic deportations and massacres carried out by Ottoman officials beginning in 1915.
The mass killings are widely recognized by historians as genocide and have been formally acknowledged as such by 32 countries, including the United States, France and Germany.
Israel had long avoided formal recognition, partly to preserve its relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Previous attempts to secure recognition in the Knesset failed or were withdrawn.
When presenting the cabinet resolution last month, Sa’ar denied that it was an act of retaliation against Turkey and said it was “never too late to do the right thing.”
Relations between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated sharply since the Gaza war began following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has devastated much of Gaza, displaced most of its population and killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, an allegation Israel denies.
Despite the cabinet decision, the Knesset has yet to formally recognize the mass killings of Armenians as genocide. It has debated and commemorated the events several times since 2011, but those proceedings did not constitute official recognition.