Capturing the scent of Palestinian life in a bottle

A young Palestinian couple in Jerusalem have produced a range of perfumes to embody the heritage of their people. Despite the horror of the war in Gaza, they hope their scents can still summon memories of a better time, as Sebastian Usher reports from Jerusalem.

Out in the fields of the Jordan valley, Palestinian women still sing old folk songs as they harvest the olive groves. One tells the story of how a fabled ship carrying a life-saving cargo of food heads to port during a terrible famine that swept the Levant in the dying days of Ottoman rule. While in the Old City of Jerusalem, the scents of leather, spices and livestock fuse into a fragrance that evokes thousands of years of history.

“We’re trying to send a message to people through our perfumes, revealing our heritage and the scent of our land,” Qassem Abu Khalaf says as he explains the motivation behind the Mejana fragrance line that he’s set up 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 fragrance line grew from a passion Qassem developed over the years for producing the best quality perfumes. He worked at night on his ideas, building up a library of hundreds of ingredients.

In a restaurant in East Jerusalem amid the ongoing war in Gaza, he says the five scents he’s so far produced are intended to let people hold a piece of Palestinian history in their hands. While for Palestinians themselves, he hopes that it’s a way to reconnect with their roots in a Proustian rush of memory triggered by an aroma.

He and Malak chose the name Mejana, as it’s a word that describes the old songs that Palestinians sing as they are working.

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

Palestinian folk memory also influenced the naming of their first two scents. Zaref Atool is a dark, heavy fragrance – very much what people expect from an oriental style. Qassem says it’s intended to conjure up the feel of the ancient, labyrinthine alleyways of the Old City of Jerusalem. It’s named after the main character in a popular old song – in which the singer laments that a tall, handsome young man is leaving his Palestinian homeland to travel far away.

The other fragrance is called Rozana, after a ship that was feverishly anticipated by people starving across Palestine, Lebanon and Syria after failed wheat harvests 100 years ago. It was meant to deliver salvation, but only brought further bitter disappointment and loss – as its cargo contained almost nothing to eat. Again, there’s a famous song inspired by the story that’s been sung by many of the great Arab singers, such as Fairouz and Sabah.

“I love our identity, our heritage, our folklore and I’m proud of it,” says Malak.

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

“We launched our brand on 27 September last year,” Malak says. “We went to two bazaars in Jerusalem but then the war began and put a stop to everything for many months.”

The souks and shops in the Old City and elsewhere in Israel and the occupied West Bank are denuded of tourists, as shopkeepers try to survive on the still bustling local market.

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

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

“When we chose the key, it was about our memories,” Malak say. “It’s designed a little bit differently from the traditional Palestinian key, but it is related to it. When you smell a particular scent, it brings back beautiful memories. So, it is the key to our ancestors and our childhood memories.”

The couple have not only just produced their new range of perfumes – with combinations such as tuberose and berry, and coconut and agarwood – but also their first child – a daughter, Sadeel.

Qassem and Malak say it is a difficult time to bring new life into a world in such conflict. Malak says she feels guilty about it but she had to stop watching news about Gaza during her pregnancy as it was causing her so much stress – and she feared it might negatively affect her baby.

“It’s not easy,” Qassem says. “But we hope everything will come to an end and we’ll have peace. A little peace of mind, too.”