I'm going to separate this answer into three sections, since it's responding to quite a broad question.

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire first acquired vast numbers of Arab subjects, at the start of the 16th century, Arab nationalism did not exist, and it would not exist for centuries more. For most of the Ottoman Empire's existence, the people we today call "Arabs" would've primarily identified by a religious or regional identity. There was no real concept that all Arabic-speaking people represented a single nation, at least not one exclusive to non-Arab Muslims (the Muslim community as a whole was collectively known as the Ummah).

In addition, the 18th century saw a large-scale decentralization of the Ottoman state. Local governors had often had extensive autonomy, which meant that actual daily governance was not so remote or imperial for most citizens. These local governors could be good or bad, but they weren't distant foreigners. Some of these provincial bodies, such as the Mount Lebanon Emirate, formed a rough basis for future Arab states.

Arab Nationalism

The 19th century saw two trends that helped engender Arab nationalism. First was the simple diffusion of nationalist ideas from Europe. Second, the repeated humiliation of the Ottomans at the hands of the Christian Great Powers angered many citizens. As mentioned before, an Arab national identity was not prominent, but a Muslim religious identity was. Many people began to feel that the Ottoman Turks were either unwilling or unable to defend Islam from Christian expansionism. This was contrasted with an imagined past golden age of Arab-led Islamic conquest. Some Arabs began to believe that in order to throw off the yoke of European imperialism, they first had to throw off the yoke of Turkish imperialism.

Arab nationalism steadily grew, and in WWI, the famous Arab Revolt occurred, the first major uprising with nationalist overtones. However, at this time, Arab nationalism was still largely an elite project. The Arab Revolt was driven not by grassroots support, but by local elites. Your average Arab within the Ottoman Empire held little to no nationalist views, and identified as a subject of the Ottoman Empire first.

That identity obviously becomes obsolete after the Ottoman Empire is defeated and dismembered. With Arab nationalism already existing among elites, it now began to spread to the grassroots as well (often with the support of said elites). This is accelerated after Britain and France betray their Arab allies, placing much of the Middle East under colonial rule, rather than granting the Arabs independence.

For the "British" part of the question, there actually was a lot of resistance against British imperialism. In 1919, an uprising in Egypt secured the country's official independence from Britain. This was followed in 1920 by an uprising in Iraq, which also led to the nominally independent Kingdom of Iraq being formed. However, in both cases, the British retained significant sway in the "independent" states, and nationalism continued to grow.

Conflict in Mandatory Palestine

Now we get to the whole Israel situation. In WWI, most Arab Revolt supporters believed that the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, along with the rest of Ottoman Syria, was part of their future Arab state. However, the British had also promised to establish a "Jewish national home" in the same area with the Balfour declaration.

After WWI, large numbers of Jews began settling in the newly established Mandate of Palestine. This met with immediate backlash from the local Arabs. Part of this is standard anti-immigrant xenophobia mixed with anti-Semitism, but since the Jews explicitly hope to eventually create their own nation in the Mandate, there's also a big localist backlash. As Arab nationalism grows, these local Palestinians assimilate into the greater Arab nationalist movement. Soon, the narrative becomes one that rightful "Arab land" will be given away "foreign settlers" (of course, the Jewish settlers have their own, contrary narrative).

All this building tension results in the emergence of Arab militancy in Palestine during the 1930s. In the early 1930s organization called the Black Hand carries out terrorist attacks against Jewish civilians and British colonial authorities. In 1935 the leader of the Black Hand is killed by British police, and in 1936, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem called for a General Strike. These events combined to lead to the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The violence on both sides during this war makes reconciliation between the British, Arabs, and Jews much more difficult. For the Arab's part, the outrage results in a further intensification of anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish sentiment.

After WWII, international support for Zionism grew as a result of the Holocaust, and many more Jews began attempting to settle in Mandatory Palestine, feeling it was their only option left. The newborn UN decided to partition the territory between an Arab state and a Jewish state. This further raised alarm among Arab nationalists, who rejected the UN plan, and intercommunal conflict escalated in the Mandate between Jewish and Arab residents.

This spiraling conflict further intensified emotions in the Arab world, and by the time the British Mandate of Palestine expired, there was basically no chance of the Arab public accepting the existence of the State of Israel.

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This is all simplified, you could write entire books on this topic (as many have). However, hopefully this gave you some more context and answered your question satisfactorily.

Some follow up sources:

Burton and Cleveland’s A History of the Modern Middle East, required reading in the course I took on this topic, for the entire time period.

David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace, an older work (1989), but considered very important and seminal on WWI in the Middle East and its aftermath.