"Sometimes, I'm afraid, the Israeli government is more fearful of moderates than extremists," said Israeli parliament member Yossi Sarid, Nusseibeh's friend, who stood with him yesterday after his release. "With moderates, you have to negotiate."
Israeli Minister of Interior Security Uzi Landau, the force behind canceling the reception, said moderation had nothing to do with it.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem as part of its capital after capturing it in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state.
"When such an event is organized by the PLO, the long arm of the Palestinian Authority, it is no doubt nationalist activity," Landau told reporters. "We can't accept this by any means."
Arguing that the reception was illegal and would fuel Palestinian claims of sovereignty in East Jerusalem, Landau won cabinet approval to ban it in a predawn telephone poll of the ministers yesterday.
"There's a whole series of activities which are in fact terrorism, and these activities include these very receptions," Landau said. "We must not forget that behind all of this the finger pulls the trigger."
The controversy, which many in the country regarded as unfortunate and avoidable, is a sign of the heightened tensions in Israel today and how brittle the discourse has become.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher described the incident as "provocative and counterproductive."
Nusseibeh, the ranking Palestinian figure in Jerusalem, said he was notified at home of the ban in a telephone call from Israeli officials about 15 minutes before the reception was to start at the Imperial Hotel, near the Old City's Jaffa Gate, at 9 a.m.
