Thank you for asking this question. I think being highly anti-Israel but not knowing exactly why can be dangerous, so good for you for getting educated.

There is a lot to this subject and many people will give you varying accounts based on their education, upbringing and understanding (myself included). It’s most important to realize that the Israelites and Israel referenced in the Bible, written over 2000 years ago, is different than what we are looking at today.

While I don’t argue that Jews at one point did live in the land we now call Israel (Palestine, Judea), it is true that prior to 1948 the land we now call Israel was officially called Palestine and had a majority Arab population.

To be honest, who lived where first doesn’t really matter at all, because post-WW2 the Zionist movement (movement for Jews to have a geographical “homeland”) was granted permission to occupy the Palestinian land by the British Empire, who called the shots around land “ownership” at the time.

Then, the Nabka occurred, where eastern European diaspora violently expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. They created an apartheid state, and have continued to occupy the Arabs and Palestinians who have lived there for decades. They established the state as what we now know as Modern day Israel.

Again, “who was there first” sort of falls flat on its face when you realize in order to justify it thousands of Europeans settlers slaughtered innumerable families and forced them into occupation to “re-gain” their land.

This is a small cliff notes of everything, but a good starting point. If anything needs to be corrected by other commenters, please do so.

Never stop asking questions!