Capturing the scent of Palestinian life in a bottle

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.”