WATCH: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says he recognizes Armenian Genocide

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday for the first time that he recognizes the Armenian Genocide. 

He made the remarks in an interview with Patrick Bet-David on his podcast.

Asked by Patrick Bet-David why Israel does not recognize the Armenian genocide, and the genocide of Assyrians and Greeks in the early 20th century perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, Netanyahu said, “I think we have. I think the Knesset passed a resolution to that effect,” though no such legislation has been passed into law.

Pressed on why no Israeli prime minister has recognized the genocide, Netanyahu responds, “I just did. Here you go.”

Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian reacted to Netanyahu’s statement, saying “Netanyahu’s tack toward long‑withheld Israeli recognition of the Armenian Genocide — in the wake of its arming of Azerbaijan’s blockade and genocide of Artsakh’s Armenian Christians and amid ongoing threats to Jerusalem’s Armenian Christian Quarter and serious and sustained violations of international law in Gaza, akin to Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh — must, if it is to represent more than an attempt at tactical cover for its transgressions, be followed by a sharp break with Israel’s military alliance with Azerbaijan and public pressure on Turkey to abandon its denial and obstruction of justice for the Armenian Genocide.”