David Ben-Gurion is Israel's 'founding father'. The airport in Tel Aviv is named after him and a bust of him greets you on arrival. Public buildings are named after him, and his image has been used on the Israeli shekel.
Here is an extract from his diary, dated 1st January 1948, written as ethnic cleansing operations against Palestinians were getting underway:
"There is a need now for strong and brutal reaction. We need to be accurate about timing, place and those we hit. If we accuse a family - we need to harm them without mercy, women and children included. Otherwise, this is not an effective reaction. During the operation there is no need to distinguish between guilty and not guilty" (Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, p.69)
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