Amitzur Ilan

Amitzur Ilan was born in 1932 in shuaffat

Amitzur Ilan grew up in Kibbutz Mizra. When he was 9, his father, Yosef Horowitz, was killed when a grenade exploded in a Haganah training accident. He studied at the educational institution in Mishmar HaEmek and at the one in Mizra.

He served as an intelligence officer in the Golani Brigade. After his release he joined his future wife, Shlomit Ilan, and helped found Kibbutz Lahav near the Jordanian border. There he wrote many songs, including the kibbutz anthem.

In 1962 he went to London on a mission for Hashomer Hatzair and wrote his first play, "The Dybbuk from Neve Sha'anan", staged in 1965. He began studies at the Hebrew University in 1969 and wrote his doctorate at Oxford University. He later taught and educated at the Mevo'ot HaNegev school while doing historical research.

His research dealt with the founding of Israel and its early years, mainly from a military view. He wrote a political biography of Folke Bernadotte, published only in English in 1989, and a book on the arms embargo during the War of Independence in 1995. That book led some to label him one of the "New Historians", a label he rejected.

In 1988 he moved to Jerusalem. He taught history at the University of Durban, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University until 2010. He died on April 2, 2023, and was buried at Kibbutz Lahav.