Well it was a territory of the Ottoman Empire, right? It wasn’t an independent country, but neither were Iraq and Syria and Lebanon etc. They were all under the Ottomans for the better part of a millenium. Palestine is from the same root as Philistine, I believe. As Samaritans were from Samaria in New Testament times
It was never a country, anymore than New England is a country.
But to hear the propaganda, these Palestinian Muslims were displaced from their country to make room for the Jews. -Tom