U.S. Bars Re-entry of Jiryis

The government today barred the re-entry into the U. S. of Sabri Jiryis, an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization, on grounds that the PLO is a proscribed group under American law and because on a previous occasion. Jiryis had falsified information in applying for a U. S. visa. (See related story on P. 4.)

State Department spokesman Frederick Z. Brown said “We have decided not to seek waivers for Jiryis to come to the U. S. to attend a Quaker conference this weekend.” Brown said “We have occasionally allowed a PLO representative or people affiliated with the PLO to come to the U. S. but not for political activity. In the case of Jiryis, if he were to give a speech at this Quaker meeting, that would be reasonably construed as a political activity. For that reason our recommendation was not in favor of the waiver.”

Brown acknowledged, under questioning, that Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance’s visit to the Middle East later this month in pursuit of progress toward an Arab-Israeli settlement “is one of the factors taken into account” in the government’s decision.

U. S. POSITION EXPLAINED

Brown explained that for Jiryis to re-enter the U. S. he would require two waivers. One involved his membership in an organization proscribed under the Immigration and Nationalities Act of 1953. He said that was a Justice Department determination but the Justice Department would require a favorable recommendation from the State Department before it would issue a waiver.

Jiryis would also need a waiver for the false information on his earlier visa application. On that application he stated that he was born in Sudan when actually he was born in Israel. While in the U. S. last fall he met privately with individual Jews in New York and Washington before he was ordered to leave the country by Nov. 30. Brown said that Jiryis provided “accurate information” on his second visa application. He said he had no information as to Jiryis’ title but he is “considered to be a representative of the PLO.”

When asked if the American Friends Service Committee, which invited Jiryis, could invite people from the PLO’s observer mission at the United Nations in New York, Brown noted that they would need permission to travel beyond a 25-mile radius of New York and would have to get a waiver for that purpose. He said this was granted sometimes for family and compassionate reasons. On two occasions in the past the State Department had to reprimand PLO representatives for abusing that privilege.