Capturing the scent of Palestinian life in a bottle

A young Palestinian couple in Jerusalem has produced a variety of perfumes to reflect their people’s heritage. Despite the horrors of the war in Gaza, they hope their scent can still evoke memories of a better time, as Sebastian Usher reports from Jerusalem.

Out in the fields of the Jordan Valley, Palestinian women still sing ancient folk songs as they harvest olive groves. The story is told of a legendary ship carrying a cargo of life-saving foodstuffs that docked during a terrible famine that swept across the Levant in the waning days of Ottoman rule. While in Jerusalem’s Old City, the scents of leather, spices and livestock blend into a scent that evokes thousands of years of history.

says Qassem Abu Khalaf as he explains the motivation behind the Mejana perfume line he founded with his wife, Malak Hijazi. .

The young couple are Palestinians from the Beit Hanina district in occupied East Jerusalem. He is an advanced materials engineer and she is an English and special needs teacher. Their perfume line grew out of the passion that Qassem has developed over the years to produce perfumes of the best quality. He worked all night on his ideas, building a library of hundreds of ingredients.

In an East Jerusalem restaurant amid the ongoing war in Gaza, he said the five scents he has produced so far aim to help people hold a piece of Palestinian history in their hands. While for the Palestinians themselves, he hopes that it is a way to reconnect with their roots in a Proustian surge of memories triggered by a scent.

He and Malak chose the name Mejana because it describes the ancient songs Palestinians sing while they work.

“Mejana has a special rhythm when you sing it,” says Malak. “It means joy and happiness. We chose it because when you smell a particular scent, you feel good and happy in the same way.”

Palestinian folk memories also influenced the naming of their first two perfumes. Zaref Atool is a bold, heavy scent – very much one would expect from an oriental style. Qassem said it was intended to evoke the feeling of the ancient, labyrinthine alleys of Jerusalem’s Old City. It is named after the main character in a famous ancient song – in which the singer laments that a tall, handsome young man is leaving his native Palestine to travel far away.

The other perfume is called Rozana, after a ship eagerly awaited by the people of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria after a failed wheat harvest 100 years ago. It aimed to bring salvation, but only brought further disappointment and bitter loss – as its cargo was almost nothing to eat. Again, there is a famous song inspired by the story that has been sung by many great Arab singers, such as Fairouz and Sabah.

“I love our identity, our heritage, our folklore and I am proud of it,” Malak said.

If the past was their inspiration, the present has complicated their efforts to create and launch a brand that celebrates Palestinian identity.

“We launched our brand on September 27 last year,” said Malak. “We went to two markets in Jerusalem but then the war started and everything stopped for months.”

Markets and shops in the Old City as well as elsewhere in Israel and the occupied West Bank are empty of tourists, as shopkeepers try to survive on the still-bustling local market.

Qassem and Malak have had some success selling their perfumes to the Palestinian diaspora – particularly in Australia. And they have continued undeterred, producing a second line of three fragrances, beautifully presented in a box painted by a Palestinian artist with local flowers and wildlife. .

The perfume itself is contained in wooden capsules with a key embossed on one side, which opens the perfume container when turned. A large old key is a symbol of all the Palestinian homes that were lost when hundreds of thousands were expelled or fled during the 1948 war that established the State of Israel.

“When we picked the key, it was about our memories,” Malak said. It’s designed a little differently than the traditional Palestinian key, but it’s related. When you smell a special scent, it brings back beautiful memories. Therefore, it is the key to our ancestors and childhood memories.”

The couple not only produced the new perfume line – with combinations such as tuberose and berries, coconut and frankincense – but also their first child – daughter Sadeel.

Qassem and Malak say this is a difficult time to bring new life to such a conflict-ridden world. Malak said she felt guilty about it, but she had to stop watching news about Gaza during her pregnancy because it caused her a lot of stress – and she feared it could negatively affect her baby.

“It’s not easy,” Qassem said. “But we hope everything will end and we will have peace. A little peace of mind.”