In the Wake of Israeli Withdrawal from Gaza

Unemployment and drug abuse:

Gaza Arabs, left jobless by the Oslo War and by last year's expulsion of Gush Katif farmers, have turned to drugs that are smuggled from Lebanon and Egypt, the United Nations reports.

Tens of thousands of Arabs worked throughout Israel in factories and in construction until the Oslo War broke out in 2000. The constant flow of terrorists from Gaza forced Israel to severely restrict traffic and to withdraw work permits, in an attempt to prevent terrorists from abusing them to carry out attacks.

Thousands of Arabs were still able to work for Jewish farmers in Gush Katif until the summer of 2005, when the government forced the nearly 10,000 Jewish residents out of their homes and destroyed their flourishing communities.

Hopes for a robust PA economy following the eviction of the Jews turned to dust, however, and the former greenhouses (pictured above) became training grounds for terrorists. The situation has fostered a drug problem among the poor and jobless, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The U.N. agency cited the example of a 35-year-old man, Hassan, who worked for Jewish shippers and was left jobless after the Oslo War. "My life was normal," he said. "Everything was normal, but unemployment is difficult and poverty is more difficult. Bad conditions led me down a worse path. I have even had to beg for money."

Since then he has been unemployed, a situation that drove him to drug addiction. To fund his habit, he first sold his wife's and children's clothes, then stole his brother's property to be able to pay for his drugs.

"Overall, drug dependency... is on the rise, according to... police and doctors," the U.N. report said. "This, they say, is due to a sense of hopelessness among ordinary Palestinians and the lack of both effective policing to catch the dealers and of a clinical safety net to help those already addicted."