Published: 8 November 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Israeli cannabis growers are taking advantage of the dual regime in the West Bank and it’s only the Palestinians who pay.
In bars and cafes across Israel, the air is thick with cannabis smoke. For years, smoking weed has been socially permissible in Israel despite being technically illegal.
While there is a budding cannabis culture in the West Bank — tobacco stores there openly sell weed paraphernalia like rolling papers and grinders — Palestinians, who live under military rule, face serious legal jeopardy if they are caught firing up.
A Palestinian and Israeli breaking the same law in the same place in the West Bank will be dealt with by different security forces and processed in different legal systems.
Israeli civilians detained by Palestinian police cannot be prosecuted by the Palestinian Authority and must instead be handed over to the Israeli authorities.
Palestinians can be handed over by Israeli forces to the Palestinian Authority, but for offences considered to have an impact on Israel — like cannabis smuggling or large-scale cultivation — they are likely to end up in military court where conviction is almost a forgone conclusion.
No matter which system they end up in, Palestinians charged with cannabis-related crimes face harsh sentences.
Because the Palestinians can’t prosecute Israelis, some Israelis have set up major grow-ops in Palestinian Authority-controlled cities like Ramallah, Qalqilya, Hebron and Jenin to serve Israeli — but not Palestinian — market demands. When the Palestinian Authority busts these West Bank grow-ops, it is often only the Palestinians involved who face consequences. Without repercussions, the Israelis soon return to re-establish their operations.
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Pot Apartheid (The Intercept)
