The Historiography of Israel's new historians; rewriting the history of 1948

Abstract: This master thesis is about the Israeli historiography, with a particular focus on four books published in 1987-1988 and the authors behind them, Simha Flapan (1987): The Birth of Israel, Myths and Realities. New York, Pantheon Books. Benny Morris (1988): The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949 (Cambridge University Press) Avi Shlaim (1988): Collusion across the Jordan, King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement and the Partition of Palestine (Columbia University Press) and Ilan Pappé (1988): Britain and the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1948-1951 (St. Martin's Press). These books became known as the "new historiography" in Israel, after Benny Morris described himself and the other authors of these books as "new historians." These historians have cast a critical eye on the 'official' historiography in Israel, and took issue with nationalist myths in the Israeli historiography. In the post-war period the accounts of the Zionist leadership of the events of 1948 were undisputed as that the "official" Israeli understanding of history. From 1982, the conditions for writing critical history changed, as authorities released large part of the official state archives in Israel on the basis of the 30-year rule for the release of archival material. In addition, Israel invaded Lebanon and hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against the war and especially Israel's complicity in the massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut. This led to a new critical climate even in academia with the authorities. The new historians then investigated the events of 1948 when Israel was founded, and argued that the understanding of this period was characterized by myths. Among these was the myth that Israel did not have any moral responsibility the flight of the Palestinians in 1948 that was the most important and had the largest political implications. The new historians said that Israel expelled Palestinians by force, and massacres and bomb attacks by Israeli forces caused such fear in the population that many more fled. Another central theme in the new historiography is the collaboration between the Zionists and King Abdullah of Jordan prior to and during the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949. The new historians say that it is not true that the Arabs were united in the goal of destroying the Jewish state, as King Abdullah of Jordan who commanded the strongest Arab army: The Arab Legion, collaborated with the Israelis to divide Palestine Mandate between them, at the expense of Palestinians. However, the political shift to the right in Israeli politics after the collapse of the Camp David negotiations and the following outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, led to a reversal of the reception for the New Historiography in the Israeli public