Palestine was also apart of the Islamic Empire , so the Arabs think this land should belong to then because it also became a part of Islam so the Qur’an has some references to Israel because Muhammad (PBUH) visited there.
The Jews believe this land should belong to them because they were getting abused and persecuted from people, this is called anti-Semitism. They lived in minorities in other peoples countries, they kept tradition so they were easy to identify. They were blamed for Christ’s death. So they believe if they had Israel they could have lived there so they wouldn’t have this abuse because of their religion. This also ties in with the Holocaust. This was when the Jews were persecuted in Germany 1933-1939 because of their religion. They believe if they had their own homeland they wouldn’t need to live in other countries so things like this wouldn’t happen again. The wanted somewhere they could be left alone.
Land is also another factor. The Jews were left without a state before 1948 because at an earlier time the Romans ruled Israel. The Jews had distrust and often hatred for the Roman Empire. There were frequent revolts by the Jews. The Jews threatened revolt due to the increase of taxation which was followed through. After the revolt the Jewish–Roman war began and the Jews were defeated. The Herods Temple was burnt and was a defeat for the Romans.
Later in AD 135 the second big revolt by the Jews took place and the Romans decided to punish the Jews by destroying Jews villages and a more drastic punishment was that the Jews were not allowed to stay in Jerusalem and Israel was now known as Palestine. The Jews were forced out and scattered through the Roman Empire this was known as the Diaspora and some Jews were sold to slavery.
The Jews moved to live in other parts of the Roman Empire and were forced to live in ghettoes which were cramped. They faced persecution and attacks called programs they were done by a Russian devastation organisation for violence; mobs of them attacked Jewish shops and communities.
Soon in 1948 the Palestinians lost their state due t the six day war in 1967. The USSR warned Syria that Israel was preparing an attack against it. The Arabs got ready to launch an attack on Israel. The Israelis decided to attack first. They destroyed forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in four hours on the fifth of June 1967; with complete air supremacy the Israelis were easily able to defeat the larger Arab armies. Within six days all three Arab nations were defeated with Arabs losing 15,000 men were the Israelis losing fewer than 1,000.
After the six day war and 1948 war the Arab refuges lived in communities scattered around the Middle East. They lived in cramped, overcrowded, endives mainly in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. They were hundreds and thousands who were displaced from their homes or fled. It became the Palestinian Diaspora.
Power is another factor. At the moment the Israelis are more powerful than the Arabs because they have more land than them. Power causes conflict because both sides want the power as well as the other factors. The Cold War didn’t help between the USA and USSR. The USA supported Israel were the USSR supported the Arabs. They bought more conflict because they all wanted power over the opposition.
The nine eleven attack on the twin towers in America has given the USA power because they stared a war with Afghanistan and Iraq this has caused tension with the Middle East and the West and because the US supported Israelis this gave them more power than Arabs because Afghanistan and Iraq were Arab countries.
So I don’t think that religion was the only important factors in the conflict I think land and power were just as important as religion in the conflict. They both want the land and power and religion backs up their reasons for why the land should be theirs.
