About 1975, Yasser Arafat sent Sabri Jiryis together with Issam Sartawi to Washington, D.C. to open an office to represent the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). These two held a series of meetings, among others with people prominent in American Jewish groups in New York and Washington. Rabbi Max Ticktin and Arthur Waskow (both members of "Breira") were among five American Jews at the Washington meeting. According to some sources, Jiryis and Sartawi were within a few hours of holding a press conference to announce the establishment of their new office. However, Henry Kissinger, then the Secretary of State, working in coordination with Yitzhak Rabin, then the Israeli Prime Minister, sent the FBI to the Capitol Hilton Hotel to deport Jiryis and Sartawi.