What happened to the Canaanites, Jebusites, Hittites and even the Philistines of Gaza? Contrary to what some people believe, I don't think they were exterminated and thus disappeared from the lands they once ruled. There were wars, yes. But they were not so devastating as to wipe out whole nations and their cultures. For centuries, people often lived side by side regardless of differences in cultures and religions, even intermarried and mingled so that both contemporary Jews and Palestinians have justifiable claims to what is referred by some as the Holy Land. I also don't think a just God could have had a favourite or 'chosen' people. The books of the Old Testament despite their being inspired and containing considerable wisdom were nonetheless written from a jingoistic perspective and reflect the cultural biases and prejudices of their authors. The New Testament which was written to address a much wider audience and readership introduced the concept of a universal God who loves all of humanity equally in a world where there is "neither Jew nor Gentile" - a God who can never be used to condone and justify ethnic cleansing, a God who calls on us to love our neighbours and to treat them as we ourselves would want to be treated. This is what makes the central message of the Synoptic Gospels and Acts of the Apostles so relevant if we are to make the world a better place.
I totally agree, however in this case the bias of the "favourites of god" seems to my perspective quite dangerous yet very used in the discourse nowdays, However I dont think this claim is coming from the OT but instead of post-war ideas and biases that raised after the "holocaust"
While indeed a Narrow interpretation of OT could lead to a justification for ethnic cleansng it is worth saying that a narrow interpretation of OT could also lead to another justifications like women segregation, cultural or the most classic of all religious segregation. However I think that we have to remove all religious meaning to approach the Israel-palestine conflict and this is important because will help us to prevent the raise of old phantoms (e.g. antisemitism is raising at an alarming rate for this narrow interpretation that is just standing as a bias that cannot be pointd entirely on someone)
So indeed narrow interpretations lead to a lot of justifications in the OT but in this case I dont think it is fair for us to judge with religuious views the actual conflicts.
Recommended reading: (1) Ethnic Cleansing and the Bible: A Moral Critique by Michael Prior, Chair of the Holy Land Research Project, Dept of Religious Studies, St Mary's College, London
September 2002, Holy Land Studies 1(1) 37-59
DOI:10.3366/hls.2002.0003
(2) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe, 2011, OneWorld Publications ISBN-13:978-1-78074-056-0