It is not my narrative. According to links posted, you go back further and there was less Jews. You want to start in 1517 when there was less than 2% Jews in Palestine?
Ok, but you know that number is so low because Jews were expelled. So the question remains, where to start? I propose a different question: ask why that number continues to rise steadily. Why did my great grandmother, who was not only not a Zionist, she was as virulent anti-Zionist as you can imagine, emigrate to "Palestine" in 1845?
Open up a Jewish prayer book, we mention our desire to return to Jerusalem *dozens* of times every single day. We have been doing this for literally 2,000 years, long before 1517. We get up in the morning? We thank G-d and pray that He returns us to Jerusalem. We eat breakfast? We say thanks to G-d and pray that he return us to Jerusalem. We read from the Torah? We thank G-d and pray that he returns us to Jerusalem. We celebrate Passover? We thank G-d and pray that He returns us to Jerusalem. Same for Yom Kippur at the height of the holiest part of the services, and every other holiday. The days Jerusalem was destroyed? We fast, mourn, and pray that G-d returns us to Jerusalem. We get married? We thank G-d and pray that he returns us to Jerusalem. (The famed custom of Jews breaking a glass by a wedding? That's what it is about).
Literally every single aspect of Jewish life every single day incorporates our connection to the holy land.
Now, if you want to try find a non-religious argument, we can do that. But you need to be well grounded in the facts of why this land is inherently Jewish, and why even if there were only 600,000 Jews in 1948, that number ballooned in the years that followed. IT wasn't a Zionist colonialist project. It was Jews who were expelled from their temporary houses, so they returned to their permanent home.
