Yes there was. On both counts. You can bicker over technicalities abbot whether Palestine was a country or a "mandate" or a colony all you like.

The fact is, hundreds of thousands of people were living there and had been for generations. And they were killed or displaced by racists fanatics who stole their land. It is absolutely f**king despicable to see people try to "wELl AcKsHuAlLy" this, in an attempt to defend the indefensible.

And yes, Israel is an ethnostate. Citizens in Israel and the occupied territories are apportioned citizenship access and rights based purely on their ethnicity/religion. If you don't know this you have not reached the bare minimum level of education required to talk about it. If you do know it, please stop lying.