Ramallah: Palestinian police last week seized 300 marijuana plants in a house in the village of Bruqin near Salfit. Villagers have accused Palestinian citizens of Israel of renting the house to grow marijuana.
Palestinians from the West Bank say it is part of a growing phenomenon of people with Israeli citizenship using territory under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to conduct illegal businesses as the PNA is not allowed to prosecute those with Israeli papers. In most such cases, the criminals are found to be Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The culprits pay top dollar to rent West Bank properties, preferably houses, to grow drugs in the West Bank, where they are free from prosecution as Israeli citizens.
Palestinian police seized power generators, a lighting system, air conditioners, chemicals, pesticides and special fertilisers used to grow the plants during the raid, which was conducted after securing permission from the Palestinian Public Prosecuting Authority.
Brigadier General Ebrahim Abu Ein, who is in charge of the Palestinian anti-narcotics department, and Colonel Mohammad Sawalmah, who heads the Salfit Police Department, have ordered an intensive investigation into the case.
Palestinian citizens of Israel are indigenous people who were not expelled or forced to flee by the invading Jewish army in 1948. After almost two decades of living under military rule, they were accorded citizenship by Israel and as such are protected by Israeli law. They however complain of being treated as second class citizens.
Mohammad Sinarah, a community leader in Bruqin, told Gulf News that Palestinian security forces must take stronger measures to deal with those behind the drug menace, and that the culprits should be forced to face criminal consequences for their actions in the occupied West Bank, pockets of which are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority.
In terms of the Oslo Accords, which the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) signed with Israel in 1993, Israeli law is applied to Palestinians, whereas Palestinian law does not apply in any way to Israeli citizens.
“This is categorically unfair,” said Sinarah.
Palestinians assumed at the time the treaty was signed that, as had been discussed, it would only be a five-year agreement which would end with Palestinian independence and the creation of a Palestinian state.
“Now that the agreement seems to have become permanent, the articles must be amended in a way that prevents crimes from being committed by Israeli citizens,” Sinarah told Gulf News.
Palestinian police have raided drug factories equipped with the most advanced technologies in Tulkarim, Jenin and Qalqilya, all of which were later proved to have been owned and operated by Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Palestinians from the West Bank consider Palestinian citizens of Israel as fundamentally important to the West Bank economy as they often enter the occupied territory to shop and do business. In some cities like Nablus, authorities provide special buses so that these Palestinians can visit the cities to do their shopping.
Frustration in the West Bank is however growing at what is seen as blatant disregard for local laws.
“Even Palestinian traffic laws do not apply to Israeli citizens. They have absolute freedom to violate these laws right in front of Palestinian law enforcement authorities who have to stand by helplessly, unable to take any legal action against the perpetrators,” said Sinarah.
Few Jewish Israeli enter Palestinian population centres. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish colonists however live in close proximity to Palestinian cities in Jews-only enclaves that are illegal under international law.
