RAMALLAH, West Bank — Double takes follow him from the moment he enters the downtown Ramallah square, where thousands have gathered to celebrate the Palestinians’ statehood bid at the U.N. That distinctively large nose. The green fatigues. A scruffy, gray beard. And, of course, the signature black-and-white kaffiyeh.
Is that . . . ?
Waving a giant Palestinian flag, the Yasser Arafat impersonator bellows to the crowd: “National unity!” He is instantly mobbed by laughing spectators, all wanting to pose for the spray of cellphones cameras.
Salem Smeirat lives for moments like this.
Sometimes he’s hired to impersonate the deceased PLO chairman, but many times he just shows up uninvited at celebrations and public events, soaking up the attention and adoration.
“This is God’s gift to me,” says the 58-year-old father of six.
The whole thing started as a fluke. The day Arafat died in 2004, Smeirat pulled out an old kaffiyeh his father had given him. Smeirat had often entertained family and friends with his spot-on voice impersonations of people such as Arafat, Saddam Hussein and Ariel Sharon, but no one ever thought he looked much like the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman.
After donning the headscarf and doing the voice in his living room, his sons squealed, “Abu Ammar! Abu Ammar!” using Arafat’s nickname. A ham was born.
