Somewhere on the main road between Birzeit town and Ramallah 45-year-old Omar al-Khalili an owner of an automobile salvage yard works on bringing life to dozens of old classic cars which are purchased widely by fans and moviemakers.
There are dozens of old cars that do not work and need to be brought back to life in al-Khalili’s yard. Some of those cars are Morris (British) Ford (US) Mercedes Volkswagen and Opel (German) Fiat (Italian) and Peugeot (French).
Those cars need a lot of major restoration work which might include repainting bodywork repairs and engine replacement or maintenance. “They become like brides” al-Khalili describes his restored cars.
“Some of these cars were purchased from Berlin in Germany one from Marseille in France and another from Boston in the US and many others from different Western capital cities and then shipped by sea. Other cars came from inside Palestine where there are salvage car dealers” al-Khalili told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC).
Omar al-Khalili is considered one of the most famous collectors of classic cars in Palestine.
“There is a huge demand for such types of old cars. It is a popular trade. Mostly film production companies look for such vehicles and pay large sums of money to purchase them in order to use them in making movies” Khalili explained.
There are also demands for his old cars by wealthy people and owners of classic car showrooms.
“More than 10 cars which we brought back to life took part in international movies. We have sold a Morris car to a British film production company and it was shipped through the port of Haifa” he said.
Another car was sold to the Syrian film production company “Aj” which used it in one of its TV series while more others were used in other movies and documentaries.
