Bethlehem – Ma'an – Some 350 young Palestinian volunteers from throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem, inside the Green Line, and Syrians from the Golan Heights descended on Bethlehem this week in a show of "internal solidarity."

The volunteer work camp was part of an effort to "find ways for Palestinian youth to overcome obstacles of politics and geography imposed by Israel," according to Adnan Atiyeh, the director of the Occupied Palestine-Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI).

As Palestinian residents of the West Bank are banned from entering Jerusalem or Green Line Israel, the camp brought together youths who would otherwise not have been able to meet one another. With Israeli military checkpoints and the concrete separation wall slicing the West Bank into enclaves, even Palestinians from disparate parts of territory face obstacles visiting one another.

The only area of historic Palestine not represented at the camp was the Gaza Strip, which is under a total Israel blockade, the territory’s 1.5 million residents banned from traveling.

Atiyeh, speaking at a closing ceremony on Friday, said the camp is part of the project of “advocating for Palestinian national identity, and defending it from all Zionist attempts to destroy and eliminate it.”

With delegations of well-meaning foreigners arriving daily to show protest for Palestinian freedom, the project was also a sign of little-discussed (in English) campaigns of solidarity between Palestinians and Arabs.

The male and female volunteers aged 16 to 30 slept in a local school in the town of Beit Sahour (just outside of Bethlehem), and engaged in activities ranging from rehabilitating farmland threatened by the Israeli army, rebuilding a kindergarten in nearby Duheisheh Refugee Camp, and renovating a local cemetery of the “Martyrs” who were killed by Israeli forces.

The volunteers also spent part of a day campaigning for a boycott of Israeli-made products, distributing literature to local shopkeepers and engaging consumers on the issue.

The inherently political nature of volunteerism in Palestine became apparent when, on Monday, a group of campers traveled to the village of Al-Khader, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, to help farmers clear rocks and litter from their land. After one hour of work Israeli soldiers, police, and security guards from a nearby Israeli settlement arrived and ordered the volunteers to leave. The campers had to choice but to evacuate, but the work was continued on another plot of land.