"[2][3] Ben Dov arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 1907 as part of the Second Aliyah and attended the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design where he continued his studies and later taught photography.

His first film, Judea Liberated documents General Edmund Allenby's historic entry into Jerusalem on 11 December 1917.

Just a month earlier, the Balfour Declaration, expressing British support for a Jewish state in Palestine, was issued.

In addition, Ben-Dov photographed Hanukkah festivities in Jerusalem schools, craftsmen working in workshops, public gatherings, etc.

In February 1915, a small committee in Alexandria approved Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor’s plan to form a Jewish military unit that would participate in the British effort to conquer the Land of Israel from the Ottoman Empire.

Yaacov Ben-Dov photographed key events in the life of the yishuv, such as the wedding of Rachel Ussishkin to Shimon Fritz Bodenheimer, the arrival of the first British Commissioner to Palestine Herbert Samuel, the funeral of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the opening of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.