Israel revokes travel permits of 3 Palestinian officials

Abu Ziyad's VIP pass had allowed him free entry into Israel; Husseini's and Ashrawi's had permitted them to pass through checkpoints from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The privileges were revoked several hours after Husseini had hosted foreign diplomats, including representatives of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Canada, and Australia, at Orient House, in defiance of Israeli requests to refrain from diplomatic contacts in Jerusalem.

U.S. Consul-General John Herbst did not attend.

Husseini warned his guests that the peace process would be jeopardized by a U.S. move to transfer its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

A law passed by Congress in October 1995 gave the U.S. administration until this May to move the embassy. But President Clinton is likely to exercise a waiver by which he can postpone the move in the interests of national security.

Husseini told reporters that the meeting was routine and had nothing to do with the Israeli elections.

The rescinding of the officials' travel privileges came after a day in which politicians from both the Center Party and Labor scoffed at Netanyahu's claim that his government had managed to put an end to Palestinian Authority diplomatic activity in Jerusalem.

The Center Party's Nehama Ronen called the meeting in Orient House "just one more example of how Netanyahu is attempting to sell us false realities. Orient House is as much a Palestinian Foreign Ministry as ever."