A private Israeli company specializing in the research and development of advanced non-toxic, non-lethal scent-based repellents for law enforcement.
Odortec, in collaboration with the Technological Development Department of the Israel Police, developed “the Skunk”. The Skunk is classified as a scent-based non-lethal weapon. It was designed to be sprayed from a distance in order to disperse crowds. Although classified as “non-lethal”, Skunk can cause considerable harm. The Skunk mist, which is fired from a water cannon, is usually yellow and leaves a stench of sewage in the mouths, hair and clothes of the sprayed people – a stench very difficult to remove. The Skunk’s safety data sheet indicates that the liquid can cause skin irritation, eye pain or redness and abdominal pain. According to the data sheet, inhalation of the liquid may cause breathing difficulties.
The Skunk was used for the first time in the occupied West Bank by the Israel Border Police in 2008. The Israeli army started using this device in 2009 in demonstrations in the West Bank, particularly in the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin, Kafr Qaddum and Nabi Saleh.
Since then, the “Skunk” has been used on a regular basis by Israeli forced in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and on Palestinian protestors within Israel. The Skunk is regularly used by Israeli security services used as a collective punitive measure against Palestinian protestors.
In 2019, 2020 and 2021, the company won tenders to supply the Israeli police with the Skunk liquid to the amount of 500,000 NIS. The Skunk was used widely by the Israeli police in East Jerusalem during the last Palestinian uprising in May 2021. Who Profits team, documented the regular presence and use of the Skunk against Palestinian protestors in Damascus Gate and Sheikh Jarrah neighberhood areas.
Israeli crowd control products are used and tested on the Palestinians and are often marketed globally as “proven effective”, and are sometimes used to suppress uprisings around the World. In the case of Odortec, St. Louis police bought the Skunk liquid after the Ferguson uprising. During the events of May 2021 in Palestine, Who Profits was contacted by a company which thought that the center can put it in touch with Odortec to buy the liquid and sell it to the Colombian Police forces.
