PA again blames its problems on Israel - this time it's drugs
PA libel: Israel has deliberate policy of spreading drugs
to harm Palestinian youth
By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
The Palestinian Authority as policy demonizes Israel in numerous ways, often blaming Israel for its problems within Palestinian society and even the problems of the entire Arab world.
At a recent conference, a PA minister and two Palestinian university leaders blamed Israel for the Palestinian drug problem, saying that Israel deliberately spreads drugs among Palestinian youth to harm the young generation and “create frustration, illness, and economic and social consequences.”PA Minister of Local Authorities Hussein Al-A’araj stated that Israel deliberately lets drugs into Palestinian society to harm it:
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PA Minister of Local Authorities Hussein Al-A’araj: “We as a government, the leadership, a civil society, and municipalities must pay attention to this scourge [of drugs] that has infiltrated our society through the Israeli occupation, which is striving to create a situation of frustration, illness, and economic and social consequences that diminish our resolve and the realization of our national project.”
[Official PA TV News, Dec. 24, 2018]
Both the president and the dean of Al-Quds University repeated this PA libel, stressing that Israel “inflicts the scourge of drugs” on Palestinian society and that Israel is using drugs to wage “a war” against young Palestinians. The Dean of Higher Education and Scientific Research even claimed that Israel has “special agencies” that “distribute the drugs and ease their transfer”:  |  |
Al-Quds Open University President Dr. Younes Amr: “This scourge is very dangerous in all societies. We have noticed that this scourge is more dangerous [for us in particular], because the occupation is fighting against us and inflicting it on us...”
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Al-Quds Open University Dean of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Hosni Awad: “This is a war. The scourge of drugs is no less severe than the rest of the attacks and wars that carried out by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people. This is a declared war that is targeting the young people, and especially in Jerusalem... There are special agencies within the Zionist occupation to distribute the drugs and ease their transfer.”
[Official PA TV News, Dec. 24, 2018]
At the same conference commander of the PA Police Anti-Drug Unit Abdallah Aliwi accused Israel of turning a blind eye to dealings with drugs in the West Bank:
"I think that accusing fingers [should be pointed]. Therefore, I am referring to the occupation in this framework, as the drug dealers are doing as they please in all of the Palestinian areas under the Israeli army's nose, but there are no deterrent activities against them nor any monitoring, and they let them do as they please on these lands."
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Dec. 26, 2018]
The writer of an op-ed in the official PA daily stated that drugs are “the number one weapon of the enemy” and that Israel is “making every effort to protect” the cannabis growers and “provide [them] with the conditions and opportunity to grow their popular and poisonous herbal bullets.” The writer, Muwaffaq Matar, also offered an explanation why drugs have now become a “weapon” for Israel:“This is because the occupiers and the colonialists are unable to kill the Palestinians with the bullets of their rifles, their shells, and the like, but the criminal farmers of death can provide this great service through ‘the drug bullets’.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 29, 2018]
The following are longer excerpts of the reports quoted above and additional reports in the official PA media:Official PA TV News, on conference in Jericho: The Drug Problem in Palestine - Reality and Ways to Cope
PA Minister of Local Authorities Hussein Al-A’araj: “We as a government, the leadership, a civil society, and municipalities must pay attention to this scourge [of drugs] that has infiltrated our society through the Israeli occupation, which is striving to create a situation of frustration, illness, and economic and social consequences that diminish our resolve and the realization of our national project.”
Al-Quds Open University President Dr. Younes Amr: “[We carried out] a scientific research in which Al-Istiqlal University (i.e., the PA Security Forces university in Jericho) was chosen to cooperate due to it being a security university. In fact, this scourge is very dangerous in all societies. We have noticed that this scourge is more dangerous [for us in particular], because the occupation is fighting against us and inflicting it on us, along with additional tools such as destruction, murder, settlements, and the like.” ...
Al-Quds Open University Dean of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Hosni Awad: “The message here is that this is a war. The scourge of drugs is no less severe than the rest of the attacks and wars that carried out by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people. This is a declared war that is targeting the young people, and especially in Jerusalem... There are special agencies within the Zionist occupation to distribute the drugs and ease their transfer.”
[Official PA TV News, Dec. 24, 2018]
Headline: “Al-Quds Open University, Al-Istiqlal University, and the [PA] State Attorney’s Office are holding a national conference on the topic of drugs”
“Yesterday [Dec. 24, 2018] Al-Quds Open University, Al-Istiqlal University (i.e., the PA Security Forces university in Jericho), and the [PA] State Attorney’s Office held... a conference titled The Drug Problem in Palestine - Reality and Ways to Cope, under the auspices of His Honor [PA] President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas...
[Al-Quds Open University President] Dr. [Younes] Amr said: ‘The drug problem has begun to gnaw away at the sector of young Palestinians. We are meeting today in order [to discuss] dealing with a dangerous problem, from which all societies suffer, including Palestinian society - as one of the means of Israeli aggression against our society. This obligates our institutions to combine efforts in order to overcome this phenomenon.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 25, 2018]
Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA dailyHeadline: “The crime nurseries and hashish settlements”
“We must express appreciation for the alertness of the commanders, officers, and members of the Palestinian [PA] Police and Security Forces... and congratulate those who are standing guard, taking care of the security of our young people of both genders, and preventing the penetration of drugs into their veins and brains. This is the number one weapon of the enemy, and it is more dangerous than all of the lethal weapons, because drugs steal a person’s soul and intellect and turn him into a creature that is dead on the inside...
The cannabis leaves, from which hashish is produced, contain chemical materials that cause hallucinations. Those using it remain under its influence from five hours up to half a day, and that may be the smallest damage compared to lung cancer, tracheitis, tuberculosis, and damage to the immune system - which means the easy ‘settling’ of bacteria and viruses in the user’s body. We can only imagine what defects will be caused to fetuses, and what harm will be caused to the blood circulation as a result of the use of hashish by pregnant women.
Those who are addicted to hashish suffer from sorrow and fits of rage, without mentioning delusions of grandeur and the weakening of the sex drive and the ability to reproduce...
Dangers surround the Palestinian society from all directions; in addition to the poisons in the expired food products that are smuggled from the settlements, factories, and farms of the occupiers, one can also see criminals who plant death for our young people, men, and women. They sprout the will of the colonialist and criminal occupiers in the yards of their homes and on their roofs, and water it with their own hands as if they do not know that by doing so they are committing a double crime of high treason: They know that their poisons kill, albeit slowly, and they know that they themselves are serving as secret death cells, who the occupation is making every effort to protect and provide with the conditions and opportunity to grow their popular and poisonous herbal bullets that are called ‘hashish.’ This is because the occupiers and the colonialists are unable to kill the Palestinians with the bullets of their rifles, their shells, and the like, but the criminal farmers of death can provide this great service through ‘the drug bullets’...
The holy land of Palestine is meant only for sowing blessings and good things. Every Palestinian is responsible for the purity of his land and defending it from the hashish settlements, and every house that grows hashish should be viewed as a settlement until further notice.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 29, 2018]
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, on The Drug Problem in Palestine - Reality and Ways to Cope conference in Jericho, hosting Commander of the PA Police Anti-Drug Unit Abdallah AliwiCommander of the PA Police Anti-Drug Unit Abdallah Aliwi: "I think that accusing fingers [should be pointed]. Therefore, I am referring to the occupation in this framework, as the drug dealers are doing as they please in all of the Palestinian areas under the Israeli army's nose, but there are no deterrent activities against them nor any monitoring, and they let them do as they please on these lands. And I am documenting in the anti-drug directorate, using the Israeli media, how- There is a report that came out on Channel 2 in Hebrew - how they have turned areas of the West Bank [into areas] for growing drugs. Accordingly, this proves how much the occupation is interested in planting and distributing drugs."
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Dec. 26, 2018]