Judaea was always a problem province for the Romans, and also the Seleucids before them. The story of Hanukkah comes from Antiochus IV and his wars against Jewish rebellions in the province.

In 129/130 Hadrian promised the Jews he would rebuild Jerusalem. It had been completely sacked in 70 by Emperor Vespasian's eldest son Titus as the Romans wrapped up a horrifyingly bloody suppression of the Second Jewish Revolt (ca. 66), which only ended in 73 at the final siege at Masada. The city was basically razed to the ground after it, and the all-important Temple, was looted. However, there some people still inhabited the ruins and the Jews still lived in Judaea. Hadrian's promise initially excited them, until they learned the truth; the Romans were rebuilding the city as Aelia Capitolina, complete with a temple to Jupiter. Additionally, the entire process of rebuilding started with plowing the land, which was extremely distressing to the Jews. This launched the Third Jewish War, led by Simon bar Kochva, who styled himself as the Messiah (this also distanced the Jewish Christians from the Jews, as the Christians already believed Jesus as their Messiah). The war was very bloody and many many people died (~580k in its suppression). Afterwards, due to the history of rebellion, Hadrian decided to merge Judaea with Syria and call the entire province Syria Palaestina. Whether or not Hadrian named the city Aelia Capitolina before or after the revolt is ambiguous. Dio says that is the cause for the rebellion, but Eusebius claims it was done in tandem with the provincial renaming. Regardless of the order, Hadrian's name change sought to remove the Jewish identity from the land from which it had long been derived. Jews and Christians were banned from the region afterwards and from then on, the region was mostly known as Palaestina and Aelia, instead of Judaea and Jerusalem. Jewish sources still called it the Land of Israel, though.

Sources: Ariel Lewin- "The Archaeology of Ancient Judaea and Palestine"

Peter Schäfer- "The Bar Kochba War Reconsidered"

Ronald Syme- "The Wrong Marcius Turbo" in the Journal of Roman Studies

Cassius Dio 69.12-15