Palestinian Meetings in Paris Dropped

A plan to hold a conference on Palestinian rights, scheduled for August in Paris, was abandoned here Thursday night, reportedly under French pressure. The French government had made it clear that it was afraid such a conclave might touch off anti-Semitic incidents, as well as attract terrorists to Paris from all over the Middle East.

Massamba Sarre of Senegal, chairman of the 23-nation committee planning the conclave, told reporters that “Paris is out, ” He met with newsmen after a three-hour session of his committee, Other committee members reportedly expressed doubts the conference would ever be held.

Sarre said the committee would consider alternative sites, including Geneva and Vienna, each the home of a substantial UN operation.

A spokesperson for the Israel Mission to the UN said the mission had no comment on the development.

The Swiss were understood to have informed UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar that they could not guarantee the safety of the expected 1,000 delegates. While the Austrian government has not formally objected, Austrian diplomats at the UN have been telling fellow-diplomats that Vienna does not have a suitable meeting place.

The conference had been scheduled for August 16-27. It appeared that, even if another site was found, the conference would not be held before 1984. A General Assembly resolution, adopted last fall, fixed the date and location.

Early in March, a number of French Jewish leaders met with French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson in Paris and reminded him that the conference was scheduled to take place just one year after an anti-Semitic terrorist bombed a famous kosher restaurant in Paris’ old Jewish quarter. The Jewish leaders told Cheysson that would bring to Paris pickets from all parts of Europe to demonstrate against the conference.