Herman Melville also visited Palestine the region. He found it depressing because it was empty and unpopulated and Jerusalem the Holy Biblical City had to shut its gates at night to protect it from Bedouin raiders.
The area was a total backwater with a small population before European Jews and their money moved into the area.
Yes, Palestine was a region in the Ottoman Empire before WW I.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t Palestinians. Otherwise, by the same logic, there weren’t any Irish because Ireland was just a region in Great Britain.