Historically, in return for being protected, adult male dhimmi paid a special tax,

I thought that practice originated in Sicily. You learn something every day. If you can't trust them in the army, and they have a knack for making money, extort them. History does not really help the Muslim cause.

Homo sapiens is a competitive species. The European Christian culture out-competed the Middle-East Muslim culture. So the European took the Muslims' stuff, including their land. There's no "excuse" for it; it's just the way of the world, as any Marxist should understand. The powerful take from the powerless because the powerful are better able to generate outputs. Look into the history of malaria in Palestine to see what I'm talking about.

To be sure, there was nothing noble about how the West dealt with the Middle East. Conquest is not pretty, but modernization is the only defense against imperialism. It really boils down to the old joke about being faster than the bear. If Palestine could not be conquered, it would not have been conquered. But medieval minds create medieval defenses. And so it goes.