Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 24, 2022

The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide was the first major conference in the field of genocide studies and marked the shift from viewing genocide as an irrational phenomenon to one that could be studied and understood. It was held at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv on 20–24 June 1982 and was initially organized by Israel Charny, Elie Wiesel, and Shamai Davidson. The Turkish government tried to have the conference cancelled because it included presentations on the Armenian genocide, which Turkey denies. Turkey threatened to close its borders to Syrian and Iranian Jews fleeing persecution. In response, the Israeli government called participants, claiming the conference was cancelled and asking them not to attend. The official Israeli Holocaust memorial and Tel Aviv University withdrew, as did many high-profile participants including Wiesel. The organizers refused to remove the Armenian genocide from the program and held the conference with fewer participants than planned.