Sales Soar for Gaza ‘Rocket’ Perfume
Smell of Success? Palestinian workers package M-75 perfume, which is named after a type of rocket fired at Israel during the recent conflict. Image by getty images
Sales of a citrus-scented perfume marketed in Gaza have soared since it was named in honour of the rockets that Palestinians shot at Israel during a war last month, the manufacturer said.
“M-75” perfume, which comes in men’s and women’s fragrances, is named for the missiles Hamas Islamist militants shot at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in an eight-day conflict that killed more than 170 Palestinians and six Israelis, ending with an Egyptian-brokered truce.
Although both sides proclaimed victory, and Israel said it had halted rocket fire at its towns, many in Gaza take pride in militants having shot a rocket as far as Tel Aviv, the longest-range aerial strike by the Palestinians so far.
“I hope the smell is strong enough for them to whiff in Tel Aviv and remind the Jews of the Palestinian victory,” Ahmed Hassan, a customer from neighbouring Egypt, said as he bought 30 vials of the perfume as souvenirs in a Gaza City shop.
Rajaey Odwan, director of Gaza’s Continental Style perfume company which markets imported fragrances and local knockoffs, said he thought he’d give customers a chance to smell victory and “turn it into a perfume”.
He sells the 60 ml (2 oz) black-and-green bottles made of orange, lemon and other herbal scents collected in Gaza, for about $13 apiece.
“Sales have gone through the roof,” he said.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
