A Palestinian man breaks his Ramadan fast with a cup of tea and a cigarette as he waits at an Israeli checkpoint near the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza strip, Nov. 12, 2003 (Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP-Getty Images).

The old woman held her stomach, helpless with laughter, despite the fact that she was ill and had been standing at the checkpoint for hours. Her fit was brought on by Mohammed Faqih, a Bethlehem resident who travels around the West Bank and impersonates Arab, Israeli, and world leaders to entertain people waiting to cross checkpoints.

This time Faqih was on his way to Nablus, where his sons study and where one of his two wives lives. As he impersonated Yasser Arafat at the Huwara checkpoint, even the Israeli soldier checking IDs couldn’t help but show his amazement. For a minute, it seemed, the soldier actually thought the Palestinian president was trying to cross the checkpoint with one of his famous phrases, “Jerusalem is ours and whoever doesn’t like it can lump it.”

While Faqih was at Huwara, a soldier stopped an elderly woman with heart problems from crossing the checkpoint while allowing her husband to pass. When Faqih approached the couple, he remembers, the soldier asked him to impersonate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. When Faqih answered that he would, but only if the elderly couple were both allowed to pass the checkpoint, the soldier obliged.

According to Faqih, after he impersonated Sharon, the soldier laughingly informed his colleagues that “Sharon is at the checkpoint!” The entertainer went on to impersonate the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Taking a break from the jocularity, Faqih then addressed the Israeli commander at the checkpoint. “Tomorrow I am going to be on television and will imitate the suffering at the checkpoints so that the world can see what you are doing to us.”

Faqih, from the town of Marah Rabah in the Bethlehem district, is not an unknown quantity. He has performed several five-minute pieces on local television stations in addition to interviews with Monte Carlo radio and the ART satellite channel. He has, he says, turned down several offers from Israeli television to appear on the Dardashat program in which actors impersonate public figures.

Palestinian television has never approached him. Faqih says it is depressing to see that the Palestinians “do not value the art of impersonation” while Israeli media outlets are constantly approaching him.

Faqih, or Abu Ayman, was also a sports commentator for Bethlehem television and plays the rababa [the one-string Bedouin violin] while impersonating classic rababa singers ranging from Muharib Deeb to Abdo Mousa from Jordan.

Faqih impersonates personalities in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. His stock pieces include a skit on a session at the Knesset, Israeli commentators during the Gulf War when Scud missiles were landing on Tel Aviv, and Arabic commentators during the funeral of the late King Hussein of Jordan. He is popular among university students and at weddings, where he is often one of the main entertainers.

Faqih’s career began when he impersonated the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during his visit to Jerusalem in 1978. His interest piqued, he continued to develop his skills by reading and listening attentively to public figures on television and radio. In 1995, he took matters a step further and completed a performing-arts course in Egypt. He says the administration at the Institute for Theatrical Arts there said he should go into singing and impersonate the giants of Arabic music, but he didn’t like the idea and has concentrated on comedic impersonations ever since.

His talent also has a more practical aspect. There were many times, he says, when it helped him across Israeli checkpoints, even while entering Jerusalem. He recalls one incident when he shared a cab with a man who had forgotten his Jerusalem ID card. When they got to the checkpoint and the soldier demanded to see identification papers, Faqih says he got out of the car, began impersonating Sharon, Netanyahu, and others, told the soldiers he was in a hurry, and was allowed through the checkpoint with no further hassle.

During one performance in Gaza, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was among the audience, and the Hamas leader was laughing so hard, says Faqih, that he thought he was having a severe coughing bout. He says he is still waiting to impersonate Arafat before the president personally but hasn’t had the chance yet.

Translated by Joharah Baker for Jerusalem’s Palestine Report.