Prescription drugs (illustrative)
Prescription drugs (illustrative)Flash90

In its latest screed against Israel, the Palestinian Authority has accused “the Zionists” of “drugging up” Arab youth.

A report by Palestinian Media Watch Thursday said that although the charge only popped up on a news broadcast on a PA-controlled TV channel in recent days, it is not new, and has been made numerous times in the past.

What is new is that the charge is now being made on news programs.

According to Israeli social workers, the PA's accusations are themselves what is creating a mass drug dependence problem in the Authority.

According to the report, part of a series which purports to portray “all the ways the occupiers are destroying our nation,” Israel is “ensnaring our youth into a web of (drug) dependence, and flooding our cities with drugs of all kinds aimed at the youth.”

On a youth-oriented program last year, Palestinian Media Watch said, a top detective in the PA's Jerusalem police force spoke about Israel's “hooking” Arab youth with drugs.

Yasser Izaz, the chief detective of the department's drug task force, put all the responsibility for the PA's significant drug problem on Israel. “The occupation has not only stolen our land, it is also stealing our people through drugs,” he said. Izaz is one of a number of PA officials who have made similar statements over the years.

Mental health experts in Israel said that the recriminations were a clear attempt to deny individual responsibility for personal behavior, one of the hallmarks of getting off drugs.

“Junkies always look for someone else to blame, and until the PA takes responsibility for its problem and stops blaming it on Israel or any other outside force, the PA's drug problem will only get worse,” said one Israeli social worker. “This is classic junkie behavior, except it is sanctioned and even encouraged by the authorities. With that attitude, the chances for PA kids to avoid drugs is very low.”