Let's go back to the early history of Arab Nationalism – changes in the Ottoman Empire. Remember, in the mid-1800s, the Ottoman Empire shifted from a traditional legal system to a Western/national one. Under Sultan Hamid II, power was centralized, state bureaucracy increased, the army grew, and communication expanded. The result – central government expanded its authority over all areas of society.

Worldwide, this was a time of significant economic change. Rising world prices, the growth of cash crops, increased cultivation, and increased exports and imports mean the beginning of the end of subsistence agriculture for many. And as you'll recall, this was a time of major economic changes in the Ottoman Empire. The Land Code of 1858 created new laws and regulations. Before, cultivation equaled ownership. Now, land had to be registered for the first time. Without a title, farmers could lose their right to live and work on the land, and to pass it on. Many of the fellahin (peasant farmers) didn't know about the new laws. Others knew, but they did not register their land to avoid taxes and conscriptions. A small group of urban merchants registered most of the land and soon became a class of powerful landowners. In the 1890s and the early 1900s, the merchants started selling that land to Zionists for an ever-increasing price.

Remember – at this time, we had the Young Turk Rebellion (1908) that caused much political upheaval in the Empire. And it coincided with the Second Aliyah (1905-1914) – which brought in a huge influx of Jewish immigrants into Palestine. These new immigrants brought a new ideology – the "conquest of labor" that initiated a Jewish-only sector of the labor market. This new group came in with a much more radical agenda and with greater willingness to "take arms in defense of newly acquired lands, which translated into a more aggressive, forceful attitude" (Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness). The increased work force also coincided with increased land purchase. The farmers, or fellahin, started feeling the threat of Zionism in ways they hadn't before.

Prior to 1905, the sale of land from Arab merchants to European Jews meant that the fellahin on the land were made into tenant farmers by the new Jewish landowners, or were hired in a plantation-style enterprise. With this new group of immigrants, the fellahin started being expelled and replaced by Jewish laborers. The fellahin resisted the loss of what they still perceived as their land – which they had lived and worked for generations. Jewish settlers then relied on the Ottoman government to ensure their control of land.

Remember that after the Young Turk rebellion, Arab consciousness increased, and Arabs started viewing the Ottoman government as Turkish dominated and with Turkish nationalist goals. So when this government intervened on behalf of the Zionists to protect their land purchases, the Arabs felt particularly disregarded. In the Arab press, there was a strong opposition to both Zionist expansion and government (lack of) response.

Through the increase in press, Arabs in urban areas and throughout the region learned about the increase in land purchases by European Jews and the dispossession of the fellahin. Local press in Palestine criticized the land-holders for selling to Zionists (and weakening solidarity), but did not criticize the system that enabled the sale of land.

Also through the press, Arabs in Palestine learned that the goal of the Zionist movement was to construct a Jewish society in Palestine in place of an Arab one. Palestine representatives in the Ottoman government started seeing Zionism through the eyes of the dispossessed fellahin and developed an explicitly anti-Zionist consciousness.

Opposition to Zionist land purchase became "an important shared element in cementing the link between members of the Palestinian [intelligentsia] who opposed Zionism on grounds of principle, and the fellahin whose resistance caught the popular imagination and thereby played a vital role in mobilizing opinion both in Palestine and the Arab world" (Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness). Remember the role print capitalism played in developing national identities in Europe? Well, the same thing happened in Palestine. The expansion of press, education, literacy, and communication spread this shared identity, and connected those in cities and towns to those in the countryside. The area already had strong "urban patriotism" in its cities; these local loyalties grew to embrace the larger entity of "Palestinian." In 1914, the press had the first mention of "the Palestinian nation." Palestinian identity developed slowly before WWI; afterwards development was rapid.