For the first time ever, the Knesset decided Wednesday to hold a debate in one of its committees on the Armenian holocaust. The decision was made in a unanimous plenum vote on a motion by MK Chaim Oron (Meretz). Twelve MKs voted in favor of the motion, which the government did not oppose.

The Knesset Committee will decide whether the subject will be debated in the Education Committee, as Oron wants, or the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as MK Yosef Shagal (Yisrael Beiteinu) preferred. Debates at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee are usually held behind closed doors.

Oron said that after the French parliament and the US Congress recognized the Armenian holocaust it was time that the Jewish people "made its voice heard."