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French Jews Planning Mass Vigil As Arafat Meets with Mitterrand

April 25, 1989
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The French Jewish community has called for a massive vigil here on May 2, the day Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat is scheduled to meet with French President Francois Mitterrand.

The vigil will take place in front of the Reu Copernic Synagogue here, where four people were killed and a dozen wounded in an October 1981 terrorist attack.

CRIF, the representative body of Jewish organizations in France, has also called for special funeral services to be held on the eve of Arafat’s arrival on the spots where terrorist attacks have been carried out in recent years.

While the organized community is vigorously protesting Arafat’s visit, a number of Jewish intellectuals are reported to be planning a meeting with the PLO leader.

Unconfirmed reports say that a group led by Daniel Barenboim, an Israeli citizen and a former conductor of the Paris Symphony Orchestra, will meet with Arafat.

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