System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian has hit out at the Israeli government, accusing them of “using” Armenian history along with their “genocide and pain” to their “political advantage”.
The frontman is of Armenian descent and all four of his grandparents were survivors of the 1915 genocide that took place during World War I, and led to the deaths of between 664,000 and 1.2 million Armenians, according to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Tankian and the band have regularly shed light on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1916, and even thanked former President Joe Biden for officially recognising the genocide in 2021 – a move that other American leaders often shied away from over concerns about potentially of straining the nation’s ties with Turkey.
According to EuroNews, Israel has long resisted calls to recognise it as a genocide due to its relations to Turkey. Now, amid weakening relations with Turkey over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now officially recognised the killings WWI as a genocide, and said his country had “fulfilled a moral duty by recognising the historical truth, and rejecting attempts to deny it”.
ראש ממשלת ארמניה ניקול פשיניאן (@NikolPashinyan) עוקץ את ישראל על רקע הכרת הממשלה ברצח העם הארמני. “אנחנו סבורים כי לטובתה של רפובליקת ארמניה לא נכון להיות מעורבת בהפיכת סוגיית רצח העם הארמני לכלי פוליטי”, אומר פשיניאן 🇮🇱🇹🇷🇦🇲#Israel #Türkiye #Armenia pic.twitter.com/TvwAT3q2RY
— Dean Shmuel Elmas (@ElmasDean) June 30, 2026
The recognition has been met with hostility in Armenia, and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has distanced himself from Netanyahu’s comments – saying that he is wanting to avoid the “political weaponisation” of the subject.
“We believe that not entering into the issue of the weaponization of the Armenian Genocide is in the interests of the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, we do not see any need for a response,” he told reporters when asked about the Israeli decision (via The Times Of Israel).
Tankian also acknowledged the comments from Netanyahu, and criticised the Israeli Prime Minister as “using” the massacre to “their political advantage”.
“For many years, Israel’s government used AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] to lobby the US Congress to not recognise the Armenian genocide, to prevent Congress from recognising the Armenian genocide, due to their relationship with Turkey, their intelligence sharing with Turkey, et cetera,” the singer alleged on Instagram stories.
BREAKING: System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian blasts Netanyahu’s government, saying “Fuck you!” for using the Armenian Genocide for political advantage. pic.twitter.com/XilFyFaBbA
— Kegham Balian (@kbalian90) June 29, 2026
“Today, the Netanyahu cabinet decided to recognise the Armenian genocide of 1915 — a genocide that led Hitler thinking that he could do what he could do to the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s,” he continued.
“The fact that this government is already committing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon decided to recognise the genocide of my grandparents is the worst fucking thing that they could have done to Armenians — by using our history, our genocide, our pain to their political advantage,” Tankian said, before concluding: “Fuck you”.
Tankian has long strived to raise awareness for the genocide in Armenia during the First World War, and wrote about how that moment in history affected his family in his autobiography, Down With The System.
“I’ve inherited his legacy in a way,” he told NME, discussing the memoir in 2024. He also added that he wanted his grandfather – who was affected by the conflict – to know that his band were “spreading awareness about [his] story, the genocide, and the importance for proper recognition of history” in their music.
The metal icon also condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza in that NME interview too, weighing in on the movement to boycott companies with ties to Israel.
“It’s important for the youth to raise their voice, because we are not living in a just world,” Tankian said. “I think in some cases, pure activism is taken hostage by certain fringe elements of society, including in the US – certain anti-Semites who have gotten into that world. However, I think the majority of the activists and their intentions are pure, and I think what they’re doing is important.”
He continued: “In terms of the Hamas invasion of Israel, I want to say that was obviously a terrorist act and they are war criminals and deserve to be punished. But, the Netanyahu government’s response is also – as we can see with the number of civilians that have died – a war crime.”
System Of A Down bandmate Daron Malakian spoke to NME about whether he saw any “parallels between the Armenian genocide and the war in Gaza” . “When it comes to that, I don’t know,” he replied. “I don’t like to see Palestinians die, I don’t like to see Jews die, I don’t like to see Christians die. I don’t like to see anybody die.”
“I try not to get too preachy because there are always two sides to certain things,” he added. “I’m just a guy who lives a very comfortable life. I’m blessed, I play in one of the biggest bands in the world… I’m not going to sit here and tell people what is right and wrong while I sit on top of my house that is on top of a hill.”
System Of A Down are currently on their 2026 UK and European stadium tour with support from Queens Of The Stone Age, which kicked off in Sweden on Monday (June 29). They will be playing in France, Italy and Germany later this month, as well as two nights at Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London.
Ahead of the show in Sweden, System Of A Down confirmed that they would be launching pop-up shops with exclusive merch, and Tankian said he and his bandmates are currently “having the best time of [their] lives as a band”.
They dropped their first new music in 15 years back in 2020, after going on hiatus from 2006 to 2010. However, they are yet to record a full-length follow-up to their 2005 albums ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
