Israel's Skunk Water: A Weapon of Repression and a Lucrative Export

Israel has spent nearly two decades deploying a foul-smelling liquid known as "skunk water" against Palestinians, a practice that has evolved from a crowd-control tool into a weapon designed to make entire neighborhoods unlivable while simultaneously serving as a showcase for Israel's security export industry. The substance, developed in 2004 by the Israeli company Odortec in partnership with Israel Police's Technological Development Department, was first used against protesters in the West Bank village of Nilin in 2008. Classified as a "scent-based non-lethal weapon," it can be fired from water cannons or dropped from drones, leaving a lingering stench that permeates clothing, homes, and public spaces.

In late September, residents of Gaza City woke to a pervasive, rotten odor that spread overnight across populated areas. Israeli aircraft reportedly dropped hundreds of packets containing the foul-smelling substance. Witnesses described drones spraying the stench to pollute the air itself. One resident told AJ+ that the smell was so overwhelming that people initially searched their own homes, wondering if it came from a toilet or even their sleeping children. The incident marked the latest chapter in a long history of olfactory warfare against Palestinians, coming three years into what the source article describes as Israel's genocide in Gaza, where survivors have been confined to ever-shrinking areas amid rubble, disease, and inadequate shelter.

The deployment of skunk water has expanded significantly since its initial use in Nilin. In 2013, activists demonstrating against the closure of Shuhada Street in Hebron, along with journalists covering the protest, were sprayed with the putrid liquid. The following year, Israeli police drove skunk trucks through Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, spraying homes, streets, and schools. In the at-Tur neighborhood, four schools were hit, forcing approximately 4,500 pupils to stay home due to the unbearable smell. By 2018, Israel had begun deploying the substance from the 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, dropping it from a payload of plastic bags.

For Israeli authorities, the utility of skunk water extends far beyond dispersing crowds. While spraying it on a protest scatters people, spraying it over streets, homes, and entire neighborhoods transforms Palestinian space itself into something unlivable. This strategy of "poisoning a place," as one Quartz report observed, destroys people's willingness to reside, congregate, protest, or even document a location until it is cleaned away. The report described skunk water as potentially "a system for maintaining new apartheids," highlighting how the weapon serves not merely as a tactical tool but as a mechanism of spatial control and collective punishment.

Israel's enthusiasm for skunk water is also driven by another motive: the country sells to the world the very methods it has developed to control Palestinians. When the substance was first deployed in 2008, Israeli police reportedly harbored "high hopes of turning it into a commercial venture and selling it to law-enforcement agencies overseas." Superintendent David Ben Harosh even appeared on air hugging a liter bottle of the dirty, green liquid, boasting that it was "totally harmless" and that one could even drink it. This marketing pitch framed the weapon as a benign, non-lethal alternative for crowd control, obscuring its debilitating effects on those subjected to it.

Israel had already begun exporting skunk water by the time of its first documented use against Palestinians. In 2007, Beit Alfa Technologies supplied the substance to the South African Police Service, along with water cannons and riot-control gear. These weapons were later used against demonstrators during the Fees Must Fall protests in 2015, demonstrating how Israeli-developed repression technologies circulate globally and are deployed against marginalized communities far from Palestine. The export of skunk water thus forms part of a broader pattern in which Israel profits from the very techniques it uses to subjugate Palestinians.

In 2017, India's Central Reserve Police Force tested skunk water for crowd control in places including Jammu and Kashmir, according to reports. The Who Profits Research Center has also indicated that it was approached by a company seeking assistance in contacting Odortec to purchase the liquid for sale to Colombian police. These examples illustrate the global reach of Israel's olfactory weapons industry, with law enforcement agencies in multiple countries expressing interest in acquiring the technology. The proliferation of skunk water raises serious concerns about the normalization of chemical crowd-control methods that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.

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." The company's marketing materials make the connection to Palestine unusually explicit, using a photograph of Israeli forces deploying skunk water against Palestinians in the West Bank on its website. The Palestinians subjected to the weapon thus become part of the proof that it works, their suffering repurposed as a selling point for a product marketed as humane and effective. This appropriation of Palestinian experience for commercial gain underscores the deeply troubling relationship between Israel's occupation practices and its export economy.

Following the 2014 Ferguson protests, Mistral supplied skunk water to several US police departments, including the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in Missouri, which acquired the liquid in 2015. The shipment to Missouri followed the unrest in Ferguson, where protests against police brutality had drawn national attention. The acquisition of skunk water by US law enforcement agencies demonstrates how tactics developed in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are increasingly being adopted by police forces in the United States. This diffusion of repressive technologies raises questions about the militarization of domestic policing and the global circulation of methods designed to suppress dissent.

The marketing of skunk water relies heavily on Israel's reputation as a pioneer of counterinsurgency and policing technologies. Every deployment against Palestinians offers another demonstration of Israeli expertise in controlling a population that the state has long characterized as uniquely dangerous. By presenting Palestinians as a symbol of pathological evil, Israel positions itself as a world leader in managing threats, a reputation that fuels demand for its security products. This dynamic creates a perverse incentive: the more Israel uses skunk water against Palestinians, the more it can showcase the weapon's effectiveness to potential buyers, turning repression into a sales pitch.

What Israel sells, then, is more than a foul-smelling liquid. Skunk water comes wrapped in the reputation Israel has built through decades of controlling Palestinians—a state presented as uniquely experienced in managing populations deemed threatening. The weapon's appeal lies not only in its immediate effects but in the narrative that accompanies it: that Israel has developed sophisticated, non-lethal methods for maintaining order in the face of perceived existential threats. This narrative resonates with governments and law enforcement agencies around the world, particularly those facing domestic unrest or seeking to suppress marginalized communities.

The use of skunk water against Palestinians in Gaza City in late September represents the latest escalation in a long trajectory of olfactory warfare. By dropping hundreds of packets containing the foul-smelling substance over populated areas, Israeli forces demonstrated their continued commitment to using environmental degradation as a tool of control. The fact that residents initially searched their own homes for the source of the stench speaks to the intimate, invasive nature of the weapon—it penetrates personal space, disrupts daily life, and leaves a lasting psychological mark. The deployment of skunk water in Gaza, where the population is already enduring catastrophic conditions, adds another layer of suffering to an already dire humanitarian situation.

The history of skunk water reveals a disturbing convergence of interests: a weapon designed to make Palestinian life unbearable, a marketing strategy that uses Palestinian suffering to sell the product, and a global network of law enforcement agencies eager to acquire the technology. As Israel continues to deploy skunk water against Palestinians, the international community must reckon with the implications of a weapon that blurs the line between crowd control and collective punishment. The foul stench that lingers in Palestinian neighborhoods serves as a reminder not only of the immediate harm inflicted but also of the broader system of control that Israel has perfected and now exports to the world.