A youthful 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 aspiration their scents can still summon memories of a better period, as Sebastian Usher reports from Jerusalem.

Out in the fields of the Jordan valley, Palestinian women still sing ancient folk songs as they harvest the olive groves. One tells the narrative 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 ancient 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 communication to people through our perfumes, revealing our heritage and the scent of our land,” Qassem Abu Khalaf says as he explains the drive behind the Mejana fragrance line that he’s set up with his wife, Malak Hijazi.

The youthful 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 educator. Their fragrance line grew from a thrill Qassem developed over the years for producing the best standard 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 recollection triggered by an aroma.

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

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

Palestinian folk recollection also influenced the naming of their first two scents. Zaref Atool is a dim, 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 ancient City of Jerusalem. It’s named after the main character in a popular ancient song – in which the singer laments that a tall, handsome youthful man is leaving his Palestinian homeland to trip 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 setback – as its cargo contained almost nothing to eat. Again, there’s a famous song inspired by the narrative that’s been sung by many of the great Arab singers, such as Fairouz and Sabah.

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

If the history is their encouragement, then the now has complicated their efforts to make 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 ancient City and elsewhere in Israel and the occupied West lender are denuded of tourists, as shopkeepers try to survive on the still bustling local trade.

Qassem and Malak have had some achievement 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 ancient 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 declare. “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 attractive memories. So, it is the key to our ancestors and our childhood memories.”

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

Qassem and Malak declare it is a challenging period to bring recent life into a globe in such dispute. Malak says she feels guilty about it but she had to stop watching information 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 straightforward,” Qassem says. “But we aspiration everything will arrive to an complete and we’ll have tranquility. A little tranquility of mind, too.”