Israeli historiography and the creation of the state of Israel

Abstract

The nation, like any other system of human organization, must be understood as a discourse with a specific origin and not as an objective, teleological and primal phenomenon. In this sense, since a large influx of Jewish migrants came to Palestine to build a nation-state in this territory, Zionist and Israeli intellectuals and politicians have constructed subjective explanations to justify their demands and interests. These turned into historiographic paradigms that gave meaning to the Israeli population’s identity, culture, and links to the land. With this in mind, this study strikes a balance between the main historiographical trends that have defined the creation of the Israeli State. It seeks to clarify the Israel’s underlying ideology and to explore historiography’s adaptations at different junctures of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.