Arabs had zero Interest in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) - til Jews wanted it for a homeland.
Between 1517 and 1917, Palestine was an unimportant backwater of the sprawling Ottoman Empire, which, at its height in 1683, covered vast parts of the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. It was separated into small subdistricts within the large province of Syria (and later Beirut). The Palestine region initially prospered under the Ottomans, but, during the Empire’s decline, it was reduced to a sparsely populated, impoverished, barren area.