Yep. An ethnicity that's rooted back to the Bronze Age or further. Coincidentally also rooted to the tribes of Jacob's sons, specifically Levi and Canaan. Also coincidentally pedating the Jewish escape from Egypt. After the generational wander in the desert, Canaan was the first region they declared their own by the grace of YHWH. It is a.k.a. "the land of milk and honey", but was ruthlessly taken off a population we know was largely ancestoral to modern day Palestinian ethnicity.

It's been like this in pockets of the former Semitic region for thousands of years, though. It goes long before "it was the Romans/English/US" stuff which, even BC, is quite new.

Edit: Worth pointing out this is nothing exceptional to that area and its ethnic culture. Just, unlike other parts of the globe, the cultures there haven't managed to completely wipe each other out or be lost to displacement like historical cultures in much of Africa, Europe, etc; which have swapped hands many times to domestic empires, often resulting in cultures completely removed. Modern day Israel trying their damnest, though.