They didn't claim "ownership". People seem to forget jews didn't invade this land militarely. Under the ottoman empire or the british empire that would have been foolish. They purchased pieces of land.
Only when the empire collapsed after two world wars, and israel was created, did people start to fight overall the country.
Let's not inverse the chronology here. They didn't come from russia and ukraine with guns, but with agricultural tools. The Tel aviv region was built from scratch out of swamps and rocks that noone wanted. It wasn't "claimed". The fact that population got displaced is a result from wars, that happened after the state was created, and which were absolutely not part of the initial project.
Remote history won't convince anybody, anywhere, to leave their houses and live in a refugee camp. Though it might work to give a veneer of reasonableness to this expropriation, for the exclusive benefit of those who won't lose anything in the process.