Palestinians Spread Libel that Israel Pushes Illegal Drugs

The Head of the [Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Force recently accused Israel of “undermining the [PA’s] war on drugs,” advancing the lie that Israel is somehow responsible for Palestinian drug problems.

By: United with Israel Staff

While a mushrooming drug problem is a very real issue facing Palestinian society, high-ranking government officials, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, are pushing lies instead of tackling the epidemic head on.

Specifically, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is blaming Israel for its drug problem, with the chief of the PA Preventive Security Force, Muhannad Abu Ali, spreading slanderous claims, according to a recent report by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

Indeed, after drug-growing fields were recently discovered near the Palestinian city of Jenin, Ali claimed Israel was “responsible” for the crops in addition to drug use among Palestinians.

“[T]he common factor in all of the growing fields that were discovered in the Jenin district is their connection to groups within the Green Line,” claimed Ali according to a report in August by the PA’s official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.

Ali’s accusations are in line with the PA’s pattern of repeating the libel that Israel encourages Palestinian youth’s drug use to “destroy the next generation.”

In April, PMW reported that the chief of the PA Police in Tulkarem made the outrageous claim that Israel is “the main cause of the spread of the [marijuana] nurseries and [drug] distribution in Palestinian society,” according to a report in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.

Perhaps most egregiously, PA President Mahmoud Abbas in January accused Israel on official PA TV of “exporting drugs to the Palestinians in frightening amounts.”

The recent report in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida flesh out Ali’s conspiracy theory, explaining “[Ali] also emphasized that the arrest of some of those involved has exposed their connection to people from [Israel], and added that what is happening confirms that there are efforts to put together gangs to plant these [drug] species for the benefit of Israeli groups or Palestinian groups with Israeli citizenship.”

The report continued, “Ali held [Israel] responsible for the spread of much of these phenomena in  Palestinian society, prime among them planting drugs, and said: ‘If these means succeed, they are liable to destroy the foundations of the public order and create a group of people that is dealing in drugs.'”

Accusations such as these are consistent with the PA educational system, which indoctrinates Palestinian youth to believe all of its society’s ills are caused by Israel, notwithstanding the fact that the PA tortures its own citizens, represses freedom of speech and press, and has refused to hold an election in well over a decade.