巴勒斯坦的领土民族主义，与"巴勒斯坦"这一观念本身一样，有多重起源和多种来源。拉希德·哈利迪在《巴勒斯坦认同：现代民族意识的建构》（1998）一书中主张，以巴勒斯坦土地为根基的独特巴勒斯坦民族认同在20世纪初出现。但与此同时，哈利迪以及几位研究现代巴勒斯坦的著名历史学家，包括贝沙拉·杜马尼（1995）、伊兰·帕佩（1999）、巴鲁克·金默灵和乔尔·S·米格代尔（1993，2003），都提出，在19世纪末政治犹太复国主义出现之前，一种本土的巴勒斯坦民族认同已经在形成之中（帕佩 1999：3）。这一在奥斯曼晚期巴勒斯坦萌芽的积极的巴勒斯坦民族领土认同，与犹太复国主义并无关联。然而，尽管一场初生的本土巴勒斯坦民族运动早于犹太复国主义在巴勒斯坦的兴起，这场运动在第一次世界大战之前的时期，也受到了犹太复国主义定居和土地购置活动的推动。

Palestinian territorial nationalism, like the idea of Palestine, has multiple beginnings and multiple sources. In Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (1998), Rashid Khalidi argues that a distinct Palestinian national identity grounded in the land of Palestine emerged in the early 20th century. But, at the same time, Khalidi and several prominent historians of modern Palestine, including Beshara Doumani (1995), Ilan Pappe (1999), Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal (1993, 2003), all suggested that before the appearance of political Zionism in the late 19th century, a local Palestinian national identity had been in the making (Pappe 1999: 3). This nascent positive Palestinian national territorial identity in late Ottoman Palestine was not connected to Zionism. However, although an incipient local Palestinian national movement preceded the advent of Zionism in Palestine, this movement was also spurred on by Zionist settlement and land-purchasing activities in the period prior to the First World War.