Nachman Ben-Yehuda

One of Ben-Yehuda's subjects of research is the fall of the Masada fortress, the last refuge of a Jewish group, the Sicarii, to the Romans in 73 CE.

Based on transcripts of the 1963-65 archaeological dig, he claims that the team, led by Yigael Yadin, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, fraudulently misrepresented findings and artifacts to fit within a pre-scripted narrative.

Ben-Yehuda compared the story as reported in the sole historical source, Josephus, to the myth that developed during the Zionist movement from the 1940s to the 1960s.

According to the myth, the Jews at Masada were Zealots who escaped the destruction of Jerusalem and continued to harass the Romans.

Ben-Yehuda quotes Moshe Dayan calling Masada "a symbol of heroism and of Liberty for the Jewish people to whom it says: Fight to death rather than surrender."