its citizens meeting with PLO officials.
When the back channel was initiated this law was still in force. Thus the use of unofficial diplomats, in this case the two academics, was inevitable because exposure of the back channel could have led to the fall of the Israeli government (Hirshfeld 1994b). However this use of unofficial diplomats also reflected laraeli uncertainty about the PLO willingness and credibility to conclude an agreement. The PLO leadership was well aware of this situation and tried to make the back channel extra safe (Abbas1995: 58).