ABSTRACT
There is a tale that is 66.5 per cent true about Ben Zion Dinburg (later Dinur), the doyen of the early Zionist historiography of Palestine, and later one of the first ministers of Education. In 1937, he was approached by David Ben-Gurion, the leader of the Jewish community in Palestine and later the first Prime Minister of Israel, two weeks before the arrival of the Royal Peel Commission, which was asked by His Majesty’s Government to find a solution for the conflict in Palestine. Ben-Gurion inquired whether the respectable historian could produce some research that would prove Jewish continuity from 70 ce, the time of the Roman exile, to 1882, the time of the arrival of the first Zionists. Well, replied the historian, I could, but this involves many periods and a variety of expertize and therefore it will probably take a decade or so to complete it successfully. “You do not understand”, retorted Ben-Gurion, “The Peel Commission is coming in two weeks’ time. Therefore you have to reach your conclusion by then, after that you have a whole decade to prove it!”
