The AP has a report about twin palestinian Arab brothers who converted an old Boeing 707 into a cafe and restaurant.
Good for them! I applaud them for their entrepreneurial spirit. But there are some parts of the AP report that just need to be commented on.
Few Palestinians in the occupied West Bank get to board an airplane these days. The territory has no civilian airport and those who can afford a plane ticket must catch their flights in neighboring Jordan. But just outside the northern city of Nablus, a pair of twins is offering people the next best thing.
Khamis al-Sairafi and brother Ata have converted an old Boeing 707 into a cafe and restaurant for customers to board.
‘‘Ninety-nine percent of Palestinians have never used an airplane. Only our ambassadors, diplomats, ministers and mayors use them. Now they see an airplane and it is something for them,’’ said Khamis al-Sairafi.
I beg to differ.
(photo credit: CANVA.COM)
The 60-year-old identically dressed twins’ dream of transforming the airplane into a cafe and restaurant was born in the late 1990s when Khamis saw the derelict Boeing aircraft near the northern Israeli city of Safed.
At the time, the plane already had an illustrious history. The aircraft was used by the Israeli government from 1961 to 1993 and flew then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the United States in 1978 to sign Israel’s historic peace agreement with Egypt, according to Channel 12 TV.
I wonder what the BDS-holes think of this.
It was later bought by three Israeli business partners who dreamed of turning it into a restaurant, but the project was abandoned following disagreements with local authorities, the station said.
After tracking down one of the owners, the brothers agreed to buy it for $100,000 in 1999. They spent an additional $50,000 for licenses, permits and to transport it to the West Bank.
These brothers would be consider “collaborators” worthy of death by many palestinian Arabs, for dealing with Jews.
Moving the plane to Nablus was a 13-hour operation, requiring the wings to be dismantled and the temporary closure of roads in Israel and the West Bank. At the time, Israel and the Palestinians were engaged in peace talks and movement back and forth was relatively easy.
The al-Sairafi brothers were successful traders and scrap metal merchants. They regularly traveled to and from Israel buying pieces of metal that they then sold and smelted in the West Bank. They also owned a successful waste disposal business and used their earnings to build an amusement park — including a swimming pool and concert venue — on the same patch of land where the plane was placed.
But they said their project was put on hold after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in late 2000
The second intifada did not just “break out”: it was a calculated tactic that basically screwed palestinian businesses like this one, and led to the murders of Israelis.
