A senior Palestinian Authority official has repeated the PA libel that Israel actively supports and encourages drug use among Palestinians.

At a seminar in Bethlehem, Dr. As´ad Al-Ramlawi, Director of the PA Health Ministry´s department of First Aid and Chairman of the Palestinian National Council to Fight AIDS, accused Israel of encouraging drug use among Palestinians in Jerusalem. He "noted that these authorities [Israel] encourage the Arabs who have been arrested for drugs to use [drugs], while the Jews who are imprisoned for similar crimes are rehabilitated," the official PA daily reported.

The event was organized by the PA and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

The PA´s Jerusalem governor, Adnan Husseini, expressed the same accusation last year:

"Unfortunately, the number of [drug] addicts and users in the city of Jerusalem and its environs is more than 15,000. This is part of the systematic attack of the occupation state [Israel], which seeks to destroy the [younger] Palestinian generation, to drown it in a cycle of violence and alienation from national identity, and to wage war against morality and good character." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), July 8, 2010] Palestinian Media Watch has reported on the recurring accusation by the PA that Israel actively spreads drugs among Palestinians.

The following are reports in the official PA daily on the accusations by the PA officials:

Headline: "During a seminar in Bethlehem on the subject of drugs and criminal justice - a warning against the occupation´s role in disseminating drugs, as is happening in Jerusalem"

"The seminar, organized by the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, opened yesterday at the ´Dar Jasir´ hotel in Bethlehem, under the title ´Development of a Plan for Integrative Cooperation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to Fight Drugs, Prevent Crime, and Renewal of Criminal Justice.´ Dr. As´ad Al-Ramlawi, Director of [the Health Ministry´sdepartment of] First Aid and Chairman of the National Council to Fight AIDS... announced that one out of three youths in Jerusalem uses drugs. He accused the occupation authorities of encouraging [drug] use in Jerusalem, and noted that these authorities encourage the Arabs who have been arrested for drugs to use [drugs], while the Jews who are imprisoned for similar crimes are rehabilitated." [Al-Hayat Al- Jadida, Jan. 11, 2011]

"Under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Affairs, a day seminar [was heldin] Izariyeh about the drugs plague. [PA] Jerusalem governor Adnan Husseini said: ´Unfortunately, the number of [drug] addicts and users in the city ofJerusalem and its environs is more than 15,000. This is part of the systematic attack of the occupation state [Israel], which seeks to destroy the [younger] Palestinian generation, to drown it in a cycle of violence and alienation from national identity, and to wage war against morality and good character.´ Executive Director of the Administration for Social Affairs, Badran Badir... called to invest additional efforts in order to diminish the scope of this phenomenon, which is impacting on our people and on its strength, and which the occupation [Israel] is exploiting for its own purposes." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), July 8, 2010]