ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews chronologically some case studies of issues related to the phenomenon of genocide in the past or present, and how they were debated in the political sphere in Israel. Acts of genocide can occur in certain circumstances. One of these circumstances is the clear power superiority of the perpetrator over his victim. The chapter examines here how the Israeli political system—the political parties, the Knesset, and the government—has dealt with the question of genocide in general and the Armenian Genocide in particular. Long discussions were held in the Knesset about the punishment of those accused of perpetrating genocide. In the aftermath of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and the other war crimes trials following World War II, a permanent International Criminal Court for genocide and major human rights violations was a conspicuously missing institution in the family of United Nations organizations.
