Simha Flapan (; 27 January 191113 April 1987) was an Israeli historian and politician. He is known for his book ''The Birth of Israel: Myths And Realities'', published in the year of his death.

Biography

Simha Flapan was born in

Tomaszów Mazowiecki Tomaszów Mazowiecki (, or ''Tomashuv'') is a city in central Poland with 60,529 inhabitants (2021). It is the fourth most populous city in the Łódź Voivodeship and the second with free public transport. It is the seat of Tomaszów County, Ł ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

. He died on 13 April 1987 in Israel.

Political activism

Flapan was National Secretary of the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

Mapam File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png, chart of zionist workers parties, 360px, right rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair rect 450 88 717 265 The non-partisans (pre-state Zionist political movement), Non Partisans rect 721 86 995 243 ...

party, and the director of its

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

Affairs department from 1959 to the mid-1970s; he also edited ''New Outlook'' magazine—a non-party monthly that promoted Arab-Jewish rapprochement.

Views and opinions

Flapan was one of the New Historians, a term coined by

Benny Morris Benny Morris (; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. Morris was initially associated with the ...

in the 1980s. In the preface to ''Zionism and the Palestinians'' (1979), Flapan writes: Flapan's personal and professional archives are located at Yad Yaari,

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

Research and Documentation Center at Givat Haviva.

Published works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flapan, Simha 1911 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Israeli historians 20th-century Israeli Jews Jewish historians Jewish Israeli writers Mapam politicians New Historians People from Tomaszów Mazowiecki Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Burials at South Cemetery in Israel