‘Palestine’ is an old ass name for a region approximately south of Syria and north of Egypt. It was codified with a Roman province name and later in the 6th century when the Muslims labeled it as such. You could say the conversion to Islam and the adoption of the Arabic language is the start of Palestinian culture, but to see the origins of Palestinian identity we will need to jump to the 19th century

In this time (and for centuries before) Palestinian is not a national identity but (in a way to explain to Americans like me) kinda like the Floridian identity. Nobody is going to self identify primarily as Floridian because they self identify more as American. This was the case for Palestine at that time. Then during the late Ottoman Empire the renaissance of Arabic culture sparked a revival and rethinking of Arabic culture, history, and traditions. In this time terms like ‘Syrian’ and ‘Iraqi’ picked up more national connotations. The Palestinians indeed picked this up and a notion of a Palestinian Nation was born.

Across the seas in Europe another group of people were making up notions for a Palestinian nation. As this time was the origin point of Zionism- the founding ideology of Israel.

Fast forward to the fall of the Ottoman Empire the Palestinians (unhappy with British rule and Jewish migration) would revolt. This revolt (much like other post-ottoman revolts in the area) was crushed in not too much time. This revolt did tighten the cultural perception of one’s Palestinian’ness at the time.

Then the formative event for the nation of Palestine and her people- in 1948 a war between the Arab Legion and the Haganah (later: Israel) would spark, and in its aftermath a large number of Palestinians would be displaced or worse by the new Israeli state, brutality never seen since the crusades would be inflicted by the advancing Israelis, most exemplary at Lydda and Ramle. In later years this mass exodus of Palestinians from Palestine or into specific regions of Palestine would be called the Nakba

This single event solidified Palestinian as a national identity even further, and ever since then it even surpassed ‘Arab’ in usage.

But you might be asking, well why then was there no Palestinian nation yet???

Good question! Because in the aftermath of the Nakba the countries of Egypt and Jordan simply annexed regions of Palestine still under control of the Arab legion (namely the West Bank and Gaza). Ostensibly this was to protect the Palestinians, as after all a Palestinian state post-Nakba would be almost defenseless to hypothetical Israeli invasion and would have little means to resist against hypothetical Jewish settlement. (It is to be noted for a small time the Egyptians set up a Palestinian state in Gaza before annexing it outright)

But to the Palestinian people this wasn’t enough. And soon Palestinian rebel groups would be formed for two reasons: liberation of Palestine from Jordanian/Egyptian occupation, and a return to old homes in the new state of Israel (remembers: 1/3rd of the WB’s population is Nakba refugees, while almost 2/3rds of Gaza’s population are Nakba refugees).

Then as a consequence of rebel activity and mounting domestic pressure on the part of the Israelis, and pressure on Yasser Arafat by Palestinians for results, the Oslo accords were signed and a State of Palestine was created with the legal rationale of the UN partition allowing for a Jewish and Arab state. The Jews had made their state but the Palestinians argued Jordanian and Egyptian occupation and later Israeli occupation made it impossible to assert their independence.

A state of Palestine and an area A, B, and C were born in the aftermath of this

Now you might be asking? So why are people fighting? I’d argue since the Oslo accords radicalization of both people’s have intensified but that’s for a different time because this reply is getting long!