How drug addiction is increasing in Israel

TThe first waves of Zionist immigrants to Palestine at the beginning of the last century were often convinced that they embodied a form of Western superiority over a decadent East. This prejudice led to a lasting antipathy to hashish, which was produced in Syria and Lebanon but was very popular in Egypt, where cannabis prohibition only drove up prices without ever curbing mass consumption.

Although Palestine was merely a transit area for various smuggling networks, in 1938 the most popular Hebrew-language daily newspaper accused Arab nationalists of “consuming hashish and other narcotics.” When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, it institutionalized the prohibition of narcotics, which led to intense controversy six years later when small groups of Moroccan immigrants were found to be cultivating cannabis.

The Lebanese transformation

Israel's triumph in the 1967 Six-Day War, which saw it occupy the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, coincided with the rise of hippie culture in Israeli society. After completing their military service (three years for men and two for women), more and more young people decided to spend several months in India, a highly psychedelic pilgrimage that served as their entry into working life in Israel. Little by little, a subculture was established that normalized the consumption of “soft drugs.”

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 made it much easier for Lebanese hashish producers to access the Israeli market, where cannabis, which was becoming increasingly cheap, was becoming increasingly popular. In 1983, the amount of narcotics imported into Israel from Lebanon was estimated at 700 tons of hashish and half a ton of heroin. According to a 1988 study, one in ten adult Israelis was a regular user and one in 100 was a dependent addict.

This public health challenge has been compounded by the real threat to their security. The pro-Iranian militia Hezbollah has in fact taken control of a significant portion of Lebanon's hashish and heroin production, using the narcotics as bait or even as a barter currency for compromised Israeli officers. In 2000, a retired Israeli colonel, lured to Dubai by the prospect of a lucrative deal, was kidnapped and handed over to Hezbollah in Beirut.

He was only released four years later in exchange for Israel releasing 435 Arab prisoners, including high-ranking members of the Shiite militia. In 2006, an active Israeli colonel was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drug trafficking and espionage on behalf of Hezbollah, which financed his collaboration with heroin. This landmark verdict marked the end of a 25-year Lebanese drug era in Israel.

You still have 42.35% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.