Has there ever been a religion in the world with "people" of its own ?! If it is true that the followers of any religion form a nation, the nation is above the peoples, nationalities and ethnicities.This is a constant theme of Palestinian political theorists, because they know quite well that if Jews are a people, then they were in the area before Arabs were.
The modern concept of "people" is linked to a geopolitical and legal entity, and to form ethnic groups or nationalities, which does not apply to any religion at all including the Jewish religion
The logical fallacy is that Judaism is only a religion, when in fact it is both a faith and a nation.
Before the rebirth of Israel, everyone knew this. A couple of books from the 19th century:
The world always knew Jews formed a nation and were a people, beyond a religion.
And if the Jewish people require a home, where would it be?
The illustration at the start of one of these books shows it clearly:
The land that was called Palestine by most of the world was also recognized as the homeland of the Jewish people by most of the world before Zionism.
The other irony with this author claiming that members of a religion cannot be members of anything other than a religion is the entire concept of the Islamic 'umma, or community.