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May. 10, 2021
Laylat al-Qadr is the holiest night during the Muslim month of Ramadan. Generally it falls on the 27th of the month. But no one can know for sure in advance when it will take place; it is identified by religious leaders using various signs. One of the signs of the night is a good smell in the air.
But on Sunday and throughout almost the entire past month, there was an entirely different smell in the air around Jerusalem’s Old City: the smell of skunk. The skunk spray is an awful Israeli nonlethal weapon, which is employed to disperse crowds. If you haven’t smelled it, you can’t imagine it. It’s a nauseating mixture that smells like public toilets, sewage and decay that can set off one’s gag reflex. This stench was fired Sunday by police water cannons in all directions at groups of Palestinians, some of whom might have thrown water bottles at policemen. It was also sprayed for no particular reason across the square facing the Damascus Gate.