International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide
International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide | |
---|---|
Host country | Israel |
Date | 20–24 June 1982 |
Venue(s) | Hilton Tel Aviv |
Cities | Tel Aviv |
The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide was the first major conference in the field of genocide studies, held in Tel Aviv on 20–24 June 1982. It was organized by Israel Charny, Elie Wiesel, Shamai Davidson, and their Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, founded in 1979. The conference's objective was to further the understanding and prevention of all genocides; it marked the shift from viewing genocide as an irrational phenomenon to one that could be studied and understood.
The Turkish government tried to have the conference cancelled because it included presentations on the
Preparation
The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide was founded in 1979 by psychologist Israel Charny, psychiatrist Shamai Davidson, and the Holocaust survivor and public intellectual Elie Wiesel, devoted to the study of genocides against all peoples. The institute organized a conference, scheduled for June 1982, which was the first major international gathering devoted to genocide studies.[1][2][3] Historian Yocheved Howard chaired the selection committee.[4]
Of more than a hundred planned lectures,
The conference was sponsored by the official Israeli Holocaust memorial,
Historian
Attempted cancellation
According to Israeli historian Yair Auron, the Turkish authorities probably learned of the conference from an article in The Jerusalem Post on 20 April 1982.[1] A group of Turkish Jews visited Israel to make the claim that if the conference went ahead, the lives of Jews in Turkey would be in danger.[20] The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs[21] sent Jak Veissid, the chairman of the lay council of the Turkish Jewish Community, to Israel to have the conference cancelled. Charny later recalled having been accosted in Tel Aviv by Veissid, who told him that Turkey's border would be closed to Syrian and Iranian Jews fleeing persecution if the conference went ahead.[22][23]
Acceding to Turkish pressure, the
Avner Arazi, the Israeli consul in
Withdrawals
On 3 June, Yad Vashem and Tel Aviv University withdrew from the conference. Wiesel told The New York Times that he had received multiple telegrams from the Israeli foreign ministry dealing with the threat to the Turkish Jewish community and another with a more serious threat that he would not reveal. He categorically refused to carry out the conference without Armenians and instead proposed delaying it. Charny refused to consider a delay, so Wiesel felt obliged to withdraw because "One life is more important than anything we can say about life."[27][34][35] Despite Wiesel's withdrawal, Charny was determined "that the conference would take place even if only a proverbial ten people were to attend";[36][37] he saw the Israeli government's position as cause for "unending shame".[26]
The Israeli foreign ministry sent Wiesel's statement to participants, urging them to withdraw.
Frances Gaezer Grossman, a psychologist who presented a talk on "A Psychological Study of Gentiles Who Saved the Lives of Jews During the Holocaust" at the conference,[41] rebuffed attempts by Israeli consular officials to encourage her not to attend. She stated, "It was an affront to my dignity as a human being and as a Jew, that after the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, a Jew should be told he cannot go to an academic conference or there will be a pogrom."[42][43][44]
The Israeli foreign ministry called up participants in the conference, urging them not to attend.[6][35][45] It told participants that the conference would undermine the uniqueness of the Holocaust,[45] and also claimed that it had been cancelled, preventing any notices that it had not been cancelled from being printed in newspapers.[28] Charny reported that several American Jewish organizations cancelled cheques made to support the conference.[6] The conference ended with a deficit despite contributions from the Armenian community.[46] The Turkish ambassador to the United States, Şükrü Elekdağ, wrote a letter to The New York Times denying that Turkish Jews had been threatened in any way. A spokesperson for the Turkish foreign ministry told The New York Times that Turkey was "not against the conference in Tel Aviv but oppose[s] any linkage of the Holocaust to the Armenian allegations".[24]
Conference
In the conference program, Charny wrote that:
The goal of the Conference throughout is to project genocide as a universal problem in the history and future of all peoples; to honor the national and historic concerns of each people who has been fated to suffer a tragedy of mass destruction; and at the same time, to correlate these concerns with one another so that every event of genocide also reflects and articulates a concern for the destruction of all peoples.[47]
The conference explicitly stated that it was not
The conference was held from 20 to 24 June in Tel Aviv, as planned, with around 250 or 300 of a projected 600 researchers,
Ajamian hosted a dinner for the Armenian guests at the
Reactions
The controversy was reported in the international press.[2] Overshadowed by the war with Lebanon, the conference received brief coverage in Israeli newspapers[18] although some Israeli journalists criticized their government's actions. In Davar, Nahum Barnea explained: "For years we spoke of the conspiracy of silence that the nations of the world maintained about the Holocaust for reasons of expediency or political exploitation, and now we know that this can also happen to us."[45] In Haaretz, Amos Elon condemned the behavior of Yad Vashem and Israel's refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide, stating, "What would Hausner and Arad say if the Italian government (in order to avoid hurting its German creditors-claimants) decided that in an international scientific conference on genocide in Rome, the Jewish Holocaust of 1940–1945 would not be mentioned?" Arad replied that he disagreed with the organizers' comparison of the Holocaust with other genocides, especially the Armenian one. Elon concluded, "Participants returned to their home countries with a certain impression of Yad Vashem, its moral stature, and its political and intellectual independence."[55]
Auron notes that because of the efforts to cancel it, "The conference became an arena for playing out a series of
On 21 June,
Turkish diplomat Kamuran Gürün told the Israeli consulate in Istanbul that he thought the Israeli intervention to prevent the conference primarily benefitted "the Jews", as presentations on the Armenian genocide undermined the uniqueness of the Holocaust. Arazi told Gürün the reason for the Israeli intervention was "our commitment to relations with Turkey".[30][31] In 1983, Army Radio, the official radio station of the Israel Defense Forces, broadcast a program during which Yehuda Bauer had discussed similarities between the methods of extermination of the Nazis and the Young Turks. Israeli diplomat Alon Liel cited Israel's interference in the conference to appease Turkish anger over the broadcast.[66] On later occasions, Israel has also acceded to Turkish demands regarding the Armenian genocide,[1] for example removing recognition of the genocide from the Knesset agenda.[67]
See also
- Outline of Genocide studies
Notes
- Encyclopedia of Genocide, 300 lectures were planned,[2] and Yair Auron states the organizers planned for 150 lectures.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d Auron 2003, p. 218.
- ^ a b c d e f Sherman 1999, p. 358.
- ^ a b c Hovannisian 2003, p. 7.
- ^ Manukyan 2023, p. 63.
- ^ a b c Auron 2003, pp. 217–218.
- ^ a b c d e f Ben Aharon 2015, p. 646.
- ^ a b Chorbajian 2016, p. 168.
- ^ Mouradian, Khatchig (2019). "Mouradian on Dixon, 'Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan'". H-Net. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
- ^ Chorbajian 2016, p. 174.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2018, p. 3.
- ^ Chorbajian 2016, p. 178.
- ^ a b c Auron 2003, p. 222.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2015, p. 639.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2018, p. 16.
- ^ "Genocide Parley With Armenians to Proceed". The New York Times. 4 June 1982. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
- ^ Somerville 1982, p. 14.
- ^ Conference program p. 14
- ^ ProQuest 371410574.
- ^ a b Moses 2021, p. 454.
- ^ a b c Baer 2020, p. 126.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2015, p. 650.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2015, pp. 646–647.
- ^ Baer 2020, pp. 126–127.
- ^ a b c d Auron 2003, p. 221.
- ^ a b Auron 2003, p. 219.
- ^ a b Charny 1986, p. 6.
- ^ a b "Israelis Said to Oppose Parley After Threat to Turkish Jews". The New York Times. 3 June 1982. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ a b Auron 2003, p. 225.
- ^ a b Ben Aharon 2015, p. 647.
- ^ a b Ben Aharon 2015, p. 648.
- ^ a b Baer 2020, p. 128.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2015, pp. 648, 652.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2015, pp. 647–648.
- ^ a b Auron 2003, p. 220.
- ^ a b Des Pres 1986b, p. 13.
- ^ a b c Charny, Israel (5 June 2019). "The Milestone First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide in 1982 Did Take Place Quite Fully and Very Successfully". Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ Charny 2021, p. 50.
- ^ Auron 2003, pp. 219–220.
- ^ a b Charny 2021, p. 38.
- ^ Auron 2003, pp. 225–226.
- ^ a b c Charny 2020, Table of contents
- ^ a b "Genocide Seminar, Opposed by Israel, Opens". The New York Times. 22 June 1982. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
- ^ Auron 2003, p. 224.
- ^ Charny 2021, p. 44.
- ^ a b c Auron 2003, p. 223.
- ^ ProQuest 371382213.
- ^ Conference program p. 4.
- ^ Freeman 1986, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Colwill 2017, p. 6.
- ^ Freeman 1986, p. 4.
- ^ Nelson 1989, p. 284.
- ^ Colwill 2017, p. 7.
- ^ Charny 2021, p. 42.
- ^ Sanders 1989, p. 172.
- ^ Auron 2003, pp. 223–224.
- ^ Charny 2021, p. 45.
- ^ Bloxham 2005, p. 219.
- ^ Des Pres 1986a, pp. 528–529.
- ^ Smith et al. 1995, pp. 6, 11.
- ^ Auron 2003, p. 56.
- ^ Hovannisian 1986, p. 2.
- ^ Auron 2003, pp. 224–225.
- ^ Moses 2021, p. 453.
- ^ Linenthal 1995, pp. 229–235.
- ^ Baer 2020, p. 124.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2018, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Ben Aharon 2018, pp. 7–8.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-7658-0834-9.
- S2CID 241330953.
- Ben Aharon, Eldad (2015). "A Unique Denial: Israel's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 42 (4): 638–654. S2CID 218602513.
- Ben Aharon, Eldad (2018). "Between Ankara and Jerusalem: the Armenian Genocide as a Zero-Sum Game in Israel's Foreign Policy (1980's–2010's)". Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 20 (5): 459–476. S2CID 216142254.
- ISBN 978-0-19-922688-7.
- ISBN 978-1-000-00326-0.
- Charny, Israel W. (1986). "Preface". In Hovannisian, Richard G. (ed.). The Armenian Genocide in Perspective. Transaction Publishers. pp. 5–8. ISBN 978-1-4128-0891-0.
- ISBN 978-1-137-56163-3.
- Colwill, David (2017). 'Genocide' and Rome, 343–146 BCE: state expansion and the social dynamics of annihilation (PhD thesis). Cardiff University. OCLC 1064648607.
- ISSN 0044-0124.
- Des Pres, Terrence (1986b). "Introduction". In Hovannisian, Richard G. (ed.). The Armenian Genocide in Perspective. Transaction Publishers. pp. 9–18. ISBN 978-1-4128-0891-0.
- Freeman, Michael (1986). "Genocide and social science". Patterns of Prejudice. 20 (4): 3–15. .
- ISBN 978-1-4128-0891-0.
- Hovannisian, Richard G. (2003). Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Confronting the Armenian Genocide. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-50830-8.
- ISBN 978-0-231-12407-2.
- Manukyan, Suren (2023). "The historiography of the Armenian Genocide". Handbook of Genocide Studies. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 54–71. ISBN 978-1-80037-934-3.
- S2CID 242387728.
- Nelson, F. Burton (1989). "'Christian Confrontations with the Holocaust': 1934: Pivotal Year of the Church Struggle". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 4 (3): 283–297. .
- Sanders, Catherine (1989). "The Fight That Gives Hope: An Interview with Israel Charny". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. 10 (3): 169–177. .
- Sherman, Marc I. (1999). "Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem". In Charny, Israel W. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Genocide. ABC-CLIO. pp. 358–359. ISBN 978-0-87436-928-1.
- Smith, Roger W.; .
- Somerville, John (1982). "International Genocide Conference in Tel Aviv". Fellowship. 48 (9): 13–14. ISSN 0014-9810.
Further reading
- Official conference materials
- OCLC 234076986.
- Charny, Israel W. (2021). Israel's Failed Response to the Armenian Genocide: Denial, State Deception, Truth Versus Politicization of History. Academic Studies Press. ISBN 978-1-64469-523-4.