Al Badhan: Palestinian workers in the West Bank who were occupied by Israel put the last touch on the Boeing 707 plane which was disabled to prepare it to take a new look as a restaurant.
The owner who is active, twin brothers aged 60 years ATA and Khamis al-Sairafi, hopes to welcome their first customer in a few weeks on site in an isolated mountain area near Nablus.
In the old jet cabin, the chair was stripped and the window panel was removed.
The table will be installed soon on the aircraft, which has been painted in white with laminated wood floors.
The brothers planned to call their flight themed restaurant decorated with Palestinian flags and Jordan “The Palestinian-Jordanan Airline Restaurant and Coffee Shop al-Sairafi Nablus”.
“We will start by providing a hookah,” Khamis said, for people who enjoy smoking tobacco through a water pipe, before going to expand the business to the event room.
“The cockpit will be a suitable place for every new bride that comes to us for their wedding ceremony.” Sairafi Brothers identical twins that match the yellow shirt, khaki shorts, and red shoes during AFP visits known for their interest in unusual initiatives.
Ata said he and his brother worked as a former metal trader of two decades ago when he learned about the 1980s passenger plane sitting near Kiryat Shmona in North Israel.
They bought it in 1999, even though there was and there was still no airport in the Palestinian area, it usually forced residents who wanted to fly abroad to travel through Jordan.
The brothers negotiated with Israeli owners, who sold them to them for $ 100,000, the engine was removed.
“After we bought it, we had to move it from Israel which was a complicated process,” said Ata.
The twins pay for the Israeli company of $ 20,000 to move the jet to the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since it conquered the territory together with Jerusalem east from Jordan in 1967.
Brothers said the transportation of 13 hours was coordinated between the sides of Israel and Palestine.
, The main roads are closed so that the plane can be rolled on a giant crane truck, the wings are separate temporarily, to the current location.
“Many media outlets include it, and Israeli police intervenes to arrange transfers,” Khamis recalled.
“We received the plane, which came from the 1980s, without any equipment that would allow him to fly,” said Ata.
The twins said they hoped to run a restaurant from the plane since about 2000, but the launch of the branches with a break from the second Palestinian intifada, or rebellion.
“Events in the Palestinian territory at that time hampered the solution to our project, and we thought of reviving two years ago, but the spread of Coronavirus also prevented us from doing it,” Khamis said.
When they returned to the old passion project they delayed them, the twins bought a rickety gang of rickety from the band Gurion, his name was still visible in the Hebrew and British character.
This project faces one more, environment, challenges.
The plane is located on the property bordering the garbage sorting station whose twins tried to convince local authorities to move elsewhere.
In the end, they said they hoped their project would eventually take the wing after being based on almost a quarter of a century.
“Having a plane in the Palestinian area,” said Khamis, “is a strange idea that I am sure the project will be successful.”