In the eyes of Israeli authorities, Palestinians in Gaza have it “too good”.
asserted
it → have → Gaza
Three years into Israel’s genocide, the survivors have been pushed into ever smaller areas of land amid rubble, rubbish and disease, without adequate shelter or sanitation.
asserted
survivors → push → shelter
In late September, a foul smell spread across Gaza City overnight.
asserted
smell → spread → City
At first, residents searched for its source around them, wondering whether it was coming from a toilet or even one of their sleeping children.
asserted
it → search → children
Then reports of the same stench began coming in from across the city.
asserted
reports → begin → city
Israeli aircraft had reportedly dropped hundreds of packets containing a foul-smelling substance over populated areas.
uncertain
aircraft → drop → areas
“Today, all of us in Gaza City woke up to a foul, rotten smell in the truest sense of the word …
asserted
all → wake → word
Israeli occupation drones were spraying this foul stench to pollute the air.
asserted
drones → spray → air
Even the air?” said one witness to AJ+.
asserted
witness → say → AJ+
Israel has, in fact, spent nearly two decades weaponising foul smells against Palestinians.
asserted
Israel → spend → Palestinians
Skunk water, the leading Israeli olfactory ordnance now believed to be in use in Gaza, was developed in 2004 by the Israeli company Odortec in partnership with Israel Police’s Technological Development Department, and first deployed against Palestinian protesters in Nilin in 2008.
asserted
water → lead → 2008
It is classified as a “scent-based non-lethal weapon” for crowd control and can be fired from water cannon or dropped from drones.
asserted
It → classify → drones
From Nilin, its use spread across the occupied West Bank.
asserted
use → spread → Bank
It became a regular feature of demonstrations in Bilin, Kafr Qaddum and Nabi Saleh, where Israeli forces repeatedly used it against Palestinians protesting settlements, land seizures and restrictions on movement.
asserted
forces → become → movement
In 2011, Israeli forces fired tear gas and skunk water on unarmed demonstrators who had attended the burial of a 28-year-old killed by the Israeli army in Nabi Saleh and were then making their way to the village spring that had been “appropriated by the neighbouring settlement, Halamish”.
asserted
that → fire → settlement
Similar incidents were reported there in 2012 and 2013.
asserted
incidents → report → 2012
The practice soon spread beyond those West Bank villages.
asserted
practice → spread → villages
In 2013, activists demonstrating against the closure of Shuhada Street in Hebron and journalists covering the protest were sprayed with the putrid liquid.
asserted
activists → demonstrate → liquid
The following year, Israeli police drove skunk trucks through Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, spraying homes, streets and schools.
asserted
police → drive → homes
In at-Tur, four schools were hit, forcing some 4,500 pupils to stay home because of the smell.
asserted
schools → hit → smell
By 2018, Israel was also deploying it from the air.
asserted
Israel → deploy → air
During the Great March of Return, the Israeli military used the Shoko drone to douse Palestinian protesters in Gaza with the foul-smelling liquid from a payload of plastic bags.
asserted
military → use → bags
For Israeli authorities, its usefulness goes well beyond crowd control.
asserted
usefulness → go → control
Sure, spray it on a protest and people scatter.
asserted
people → spray → protest
But spray it over streets, homes and neighbourhoods, and it becomes a tool for making Palestinian space itself unliveable.
That goes some way towards explaining Israel’s enduring enthusiasm for skunk water.
asserted
That → spray → water
There is another reason, too: Israel sells to the world the methods it has developed to control Palestinians.
asserted
it → be → Palestinians
When skunk water was first deployed in 2008, it was reported that Israeli police had “high hopes of turning it into a commercial venture and selling it to law-enforcement agencies overseas”.
asserted
police → deploy → agencies
Superintendent David Ben Harosh even went on air hugging a “litre bottle of dirty, green liquid” and boasting: “It’s totally harmless, you can even drink it.”
asserted
you → go → it
Its use against Palestinians – whom Israel has long characterised as a symbol of pathological evil – also feeds the country’s global reputation as a pioneer of counterinsurgency and policing technologies.
asserted
Israel → characterise → technologies
Every deployment offers another demonstration of Israeli expertise in controlling the population it presents as uniquely dangerous.
asserted
it → offer → population
By then, Israel had already begun exporting it.
asserted
Israel → begin → it
In 2007, Beit Alfa Technologies supplied skunk water to the South African Police Service along with “water cannons and riot-control gear”.
asserted
Technologies → supply → cannons
These were later used against demonstrators during the Fees Must Fall protests in 2015.
asserted
Fees → use → 2015
In 2017, India’s Central Reserve Police Force tested skunk water for crowd control in places including Jammu and Kashmir.
asserted
Force → test → Jammu
The Who Profits Research Center has also said it was approached by a company seeking help contacting Odortec to buy the liquid for sale to Colombian police.
asserted
it → say → police
In the United States, Mistral Security supplies skunk water, claiming that “the stench of Skunk immediately causes individuals and crowds to cease their activities while allowing Law Enforcement to gain control with minimum injuries and casualties”.
asserted
Enforcement → supply → injuries
The company’s marketing makes the connection to Palestine unusually explicit: its website uses a photograph of Israeli forces deploying skunk water against Palestinians in the West Bank.
asserted
forces → make → Bank
The Palestinians subjected to the weapon become part of the proof that it works.
asserted
it → subject → proof
Following the 2014 Ferguson protests, Mistral supplied skunk water to several US police departments.
asserted
Mistral → follow → departments
This included the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department in Missouri, which acquired the liquid in 2015 following the protests in Ferguson.
asserted
which → include → Ferguson
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
