Based on an initiative by the AFSC, the two renowned human rights lawyers Lea Tsemel and Usama Halabi toured the United States from 28 April to 5 May 1997 in order to raise the issue of ID card confiscations in Jerusalem to the US public and policy makers. The program included meetings with US Congressmen and Senators (e.g. Lugar, Feinstein, Wellstone, Moynihan), and with the State Department; a briefing to the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and a meeting with Nasser al-Qidwa, the PLO ambassador to the UN; numerous public lectures and discussions with human rights activists, Arab-American community activists, and university students and staff in Chicago, Washington, Portland, Cleveland and Philadelphia; and several TV and radio interviews. In general, the US audience, who had been ill informed on the issue, were very receptive and eager to follow up. 
One day after the lawyers’ departure, the Washington Post featured two sympathetic articles detailing the Israeli practice of denying Palestinian Jerusalemites their ID cards (“Israel Chips Away East Jerusalem ID Cards” and “You Have ... Ceased to Be a Resident”, Washington Post, 5-5-1997), and the US State Department also made a public statement in its Daily Press briefing, confirming that discussions about Palestinian residency rights with the Israeli government had taken place. The State Department official implied that Israel may be “altering” their practices (see opening article in this ARTICLE 74). The reportedly most disappointing experiences were the confrontation with the fact that the Arab American public is among the least informed about the actual situation in Jerusalem on the one hand, and the response of PLO ambassador to the UN, Nasser al Qidwa on the other. Mr. Qidwa suggested that Palestinian Jerusalemites who are no longer permitted to live in Jerusalem, could just move to Nablus or Ramallah, i.e. a response which shows that an earlier post card petition addressing Mr. Qidwa was more than justified (see below).