That is a quaint historical "misconception."

The people called the Palestinian People are not a homogeneous people.

Some are indigenous people like the Samaritans, with whom I personally, with a group, met and listened as well as spoke with the High Priest of the Samaritans in 1982 near Mount Gerizarim (הַר גְּרִיזִּים or جبل جرزيم). The Samaritans are a small minority of Palestinian People, neither Arab nor Jew, that live in the Nablus area. see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Gerizim

There are also Christian populations within the Palestinian People many dating back to the times following Christ.

Quote:

Most Palestinian Christians nowadays see themselves as culturally and linguistically Arab Christians with ancestors dating back to the first followers of Christ. They claim descent from a mixture of Jews and Gentiles who converted to Christianity in the first few centuries AD,[16] Romans, Ghassanids, Byzantines, and Crusaders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palest...arly_histor y

Certain irony in that ...

When the Orient Express was built c.1880 there was a mass migration of Arab labors to Palestine (the north coastal area of Israel now) and Lebanon for the purpose of logging the forests for railroad ties. Many of the non-indigenous Palestinian people descend from that immigration.

I have been in the Jezreel valley and Megiddo it is surrounded by a mountainous area with mainly shrub.

Quote:

"The Jezreel Valley is a large fertile plain and inland valley south of the Lower Galilee region in Israel and West Bank in the Palestinian territories. Wikipedia"

The Jezreel valley, near Megiddo, is prophesied to be the site of the place of Armageddon. The final war "the armies Gog and Magog" Ezekiel 25-48, Book of Revelation, and even the Qur'an: In Surat Al-Kahf ("The Cave", 18:83–98) and Surat Al-Anbiya ("The Prophets", 21:96–100). Maybe you can begin to understand the basis of the religious claims each people; Arab, Christian and Jew attach to these lands.

Quote:

In 1852 the American writer Bayard Taylor traveled across the Jezreel Valley, which he described in his 1854 book 'The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain' as: "one of the richest districts in the world."[10] Laurence Oliphant, who visited the 'Akko Sanjak' valley area in 1887, then a subprovince of the 'Beirut Wilayah',[11] wrote that the Valley of Esdraelon (Jezreel) was "a huge green lake of waving wheat, with its village-crowned mounds rising from it like islands; and it presents one of the most striking pictures of luxuriant fertility which it is possible to conceive."[12]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jezreel_Valley

With all due respect, Mr. Twain was maybe telling the story he saw but it's his truth ...

85%+ of the people inhabiting the area of Israel and Palestine are immigrants of recent history, each with its own claims to the lands which BTW, contain most of arable land and fresh water in the region. The Jordan River and the Litani River (Lebanon) are the only large sources of water in the area.

The people of Gaza are mainly displaced Muslim Arabs from the UN partition and creation of the State of Israel and the resulting war in 1948. There are probably a few descendants of, or those who claim to be descended from, the Philistines of the Bible

Quote:

"According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states (the "Philistine Pentapolis") of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with no fixed border to the east ..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistines.

But don't let the historical facts get in the way of emotions and drama... Carry On ...

The wikipedia quotes were not the basis of what I said, merely references -- I spent 3 years in Israel and speak from the expedience of what both Israelis, some Palestinians (of all faiths), Druze, and Samaritans have told me personally. I sat and listened to a Mullah speak and make his case of his peoples' claims to their lands and some were legitimate. I have listened to Rabbis make their claims, mostly I might add just like the Mullah -- most based in old even ancient theology.

The Important Part:
The best experience I had on my stay in Israel in retrospect was the day we had a serious injury on the dairy farm I was working on.

We, Myself, the Russian Jew farmer and one of the Arab Butchers from Gaza who was buying the cows for slaughter, were loading two burnt-out dairy cows up a trailer's ramp. We were lifting the ramp to close the trailer and all of a sudden one cow decided to step backwards. We could not hold the ramp up. The farmer was not able to jump back fast enough like the butcher an I were able to. The ramp came down smashing the farmers foot.

Somehow, with the help of a cattle prod the Arab butcher and I got the trailer ramp back up and off Ephraim's foot TOGETHER. I ran to the house to get help and call an ambulance. The Arab butcher from Gaza knew bones, while I was gone he reset the Jewish farmer's broken foot bones (the metacarpals top 5 in the foot).

The Doctor at the hospital told the farmer's wife that when Ephraim got there that his foot was saved by the work of that Gazan Butcher resetting the Jewish farmer Ephraim's foot bones. I will never forget that day -- it taught me that people who work together can climb mountains and not to judge a man by his religion or race but by his deeds. That day together we put those religious people and their inner hate to shame.