Abstract
- The article addresses the issue of the relation between historiography and the political debate. It examines the historiographic works concerning the events which lead to the emergence of the State of Israel between 1947 and 1949 as one of the key-periods in the history of the contemporary Middle East. In particular, the analysis focuses on the debate originating in the mid 1980s on the revision of traditional Israeli historiography undertaken by the so-called ‘New Historians', of whom Benny Morris is a leading representative. By drawing on the notion of the ‘public use of history, the author reverses the perspective, showing how the academic debate itself is characterised by strongly polemical aspects. The historiographic research on 1948, to which the works of the New Historians provide the latest significant contribution in terms of analysis of new sources, constitutes a firmer knowledge than the tones of the debate would suggest. Key words: public use of history, Israel, New Israeli Historians, first Arab-Israeli war, Palestine, Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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