Actually rich Jews purchased the land, to increase the Jewish presence there beginning in the late 1800s. They began buying properties under the Turks and continued this under British rule. The only land that Jews own in Israel besides that which they purchased is land abandoned by Arabs mostly in 1948, when they were encouraged by their brothers to leave to clear the way for others to wipe out all the Jews, and land taken by eminent domain for military and other government reasons (not dissimilar to what goes on in the US). The Arabs that didn't leave or sell their land are still there; over a million of them or about a sixth of the total population of Israel.
ML/NJ