In a demonstration against crime within the Arab community, in Tamra, in northern Israel, on January 28, 2026. Photo: Laurence Geai/MYOP for “Le Monde”
The Israeli society has long been spared from drug trafficking and the violence that comes with it. Zionist pioneers stigmatize hashish as a symbol of “Arab decadence” against which they claim to mobilize. It is not until the occupation in 1967 of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip that a psychotropic culture widely imported from the United States develops in Israel. The intoxicating pilgrimage in India becomes a frequent interlude between the three years of military service for men (and two for women), on one hand, and entry into the workforce, on the other.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 links Lebanese hashish production areas with the expanding Israeli market, with 700 tons illegally imported from the following year. Israeli officers are sometimes compromised in these transnational networks, which are regularly dismantled. Repression intensifies due to the involvement of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in such trafficking, until the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
/2026/03/03/000-99eu28a-69a6b7237bbc9658729811.jpg "War in the Middle East: Iran warns European countries against any involvement in the conflict")
