President Shimon Peres
President Shimon PeresFlash 90

With the holiday of Purim, when it is a tradition to dress up in costume, being around the corner, President Shimon Peres on Friday posted photos of disguises he wore in the 1970s to travel undetected to Jordan for secret negotiations, AFP reported.

"Purim is a great time (to) dress up but not the only time," Peres wrote. "This is the disguise I wore in the mid-seventies when I would go to my meetings with King Hussein of Jordan before signing the peace agreements."

Peres appears in a faded photo sporting a bushy brown moustache, clearly wearing a wig, atop of which balances a beige fedora hat.

Beneath the image are two passport-style photos of him wearing glasses and a fake beard.

The President posted the photos both on his Facebook page and on his Twitter account:

Peres's Tweet.
Peres's Tweet.Screenshot

Peres's Facebook posting with the photos received nearly 6,000 "likes" just a few hours  after he posted it, and Israelis joined in by posting pictures of themselves and their children dressed up for Purim.

The holiday of Purim, which celebrates the defeat of one of Israel's worst enemies, Haman the Wicked, in ancient Persia, will begin on Saturday night with the reading of the scroll of Esther in synagogues.

In Jerusalem, the Purim celebration will begin Sunday evening. This has to do with the fact that Jerusalem was surrounded by walls from the time of the conquest of the Land of Israel by Joshua. Jewish tradition has it that Jews in the walled city of Shushan – the capital of ancient Persia – fought against their enemies for an extra day before defeating them, and therefore people living in walled cities begin celebrating Purim a day later than others.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)