Setting the Stage before Conflict

Abstract

This chapter looks at the history of Ottoman Palestine from the late 18th century up to the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, focusing on the historic ties to the land of both Palestinians and Jews. It then looks at why both communities welcomed the revolution, adopting a sense of Ottoman civic identity. However, rather than bringing the two communities together, Ottomanism did the opposite, placing the two communities on a track of conflict, with each community taking steps to “claim the homeland.”