Henri Curiel

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Henri Curiel
A man in glasses
Henri Curiel in the 1960s or 70s
Born(1914-09-13)13 September 1914
Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt
Died4 May 1978(1978-05-04) (aged 63)
Paris, France
Cause of deathAssassination by gunshot

Henri Curiel (13 September 1914 – 4 May 1978) was a left-wing political activist in Egypt and France. Born in Egypt, Curiel led the communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation until he was expelled from the country in 1950.

Settling in France, Curiel aided the Algerian

national liberation causes, including in South Africa
and Latin America. In 1978 Curiel was assassinated in Paris; his murderer has never been identified.

Biography

Early life and family

Curiel was born in Cairo to an

anti-fascist militant who was murdered in Italy in 1945. Another cousin was the noted British KGB spy George Blake. In an interview with Jean Lesieur, published in the French magazine L'Express on 21 Feb 1991,[2] the latter said that the older Curiel had been influential as a communist in shaping his political views, as Blake met him as a teenager.[3]

His son is the French journalist Alain Gresh, who was born in Cairo in 1948 and grew up in Paris.[3]

Political career in Egypt

In 1939 Curiel, his brother Raoul and Georges Henein launched Don Quichotte, a French language Communist weekly.[4] In 1943 he founded the communist Egyptian Movement for National Liberation (HAMETU) which in 1947 became the Democratic Movement for National Liberation (HADETU). He was repeatedly arrested, along with many other communists. Despite his Egyptian citizenship, he was forced to emigrate in 1950.[citation needed]

The Democratic Movement for National Liberation was an active participant in the 1952 revolution led by the free officers and Gamal Abdel Nasser. The revolutionary council and the free officers had many members from HADETU; the most eminent of these were Khaled Mohy el din, Yousef Sedeek and Ahmed Hamroush. Curiel settled in France and led a circle of Jewish communist emigres from Egypt known as the "Rome Group".[citation needed]

Anti-colonial activism in Paris

Curiel worked for the

French security services in 1960. Curiel was a founder of "Solidarité", a support group for various anti-colonial and opposition movements in the Third World (in particular Africa and Latin America), such as the African National Congress (ANC).[citation needed
]

It was during this time that he became a liaison to Swiss neo-Nazi

Francois Genoud.[5]

In 1976 he initiated contacts with Israeli and Palestinian representatives willing to negotiate a mutual recognition. Several meetings, later known as the "Paris talks", were organized.[6] Under the chairmanship of Pierre Mendès France, they included Issam Sartawi, adviser to Yasser Arafat; and Uri Avnery and Mattityahu Peled, members of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP).[citation needed]

On 21 June 1976,

Digne, an administrative measure that was lifted once the accusation was demonstrated to be untrue.[7]

An American

Special National Intelligence Estimate) said that Curiel's organization "has provided support to a wide variety of Third World leftist revolutionary organizations", including "false documents, financial aid, and safehaven before and after operations, as well as some illegal training in France in weapons and explosives." The authors further comment that his group's "association with non-communist and nonviolent leaders, including clergymen, has tended to cloak the nature and extent of its operations."[8]

Assassination

Curiel's grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery

Henri Curiel was assassinated in Paris on 4 May 1978. Two far-right groups (

OAS and the Charles Martel Group
) claimed responsibility, but the case is still unsolved.

Police and journalistic investigations suggest other suspects:

  • SDECE and the OAS, who worked as an informant for Lucien Aimé-Blanc, may have killed Henri Curiel on behalf of a Spanish death squad [9]
  • Abu Nidal group (it allegedly later shot Issam Sartawi), allegedly commissioned by the KGB[10]
  • South African Bureau of State Security (because of Curiel's aid to the ANC) [7]

Henri Curiel is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

Curiel's work in promoting dialogue between the

Sorbonne lecturer Joyce Blau – Curiel's close associate and fellow Egyptian exile.[11]

In fiction

Henri Curiel appears in several parts of the 1982

spy thriller Shadow of Shadows by Ted Allbeury, whose plot is focused on George Blake
. Allbeury takes at face value the assertions of Curiel having been a KGB agent, and assumes that for some time in the 1950s Curiel was Blake's KGB contact – for which there is no historical proof of any kind.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Beinin, Was the Red Flag Flying There?, 1990, pp. 106–107.
  2. ^ L'Express, Paris, 21 Feb 1991
  3. ^ a b "George Blake: I spy a British traitor". The Independent. 1 October 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  4. ISBN 9780599474321
    .
  5. ISBN 1-57027-039-2
    .
  6. ^ "IISH – Archives". www.iisg.nl. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  7. ^ a b "Henri Curiel, citizen of the third world", Le Monde diplomatique, April 1998 (in English and French)
  8. ^ Soviet Support for International Terrorism and Revolutionary Violence: Special National Intelligence Estimate (1981). p. 23. Available at "䍉䄠䙏䥁‭⁓敡牣栠佰瑩潮". Archived from the original on 8 November 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2009.
  9. ^ Lucien Aimé-Blanc, 2006
  10. ^ Alexandre Adler, 2006
  11. ^ The archives of the Comité Palestine et Israël Vivront are deposited at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam [1]

References

  • Georges Suffert, "Le patron des réseaux d'aide aux terroristes", Le Point, 21 June 1976
  • Roland Gaucher, Le Réseau Curiel ou la subversion humanitaire, Jean Picollec, 1981
  • Jean-Marie Domenach, "Trois ans apres: L'affaire Curiel. 1. La preuve ne doit pas apparaitre". Le Monde, 16 mai 1981. 2." Espion et terroriste, certes pas". Le Monde, 17–18 mai 1981.
  • Gilles Perrault, Un homme à part, Bernard Barrault, 1984
  • Gilles Perrault, "Henri Curiel, citizen of the third world". Le Monde Diplomatique online, English edition, 1998/04/13, http://mondediplo.com/1998/04/13curiel
  • Alain Gresh, The PLO: The Struggle Within: Towards an Independent Palestine, London: Zed Books, 1985
  • Jacques Hassoun, "La vie passionnée d'Henri Curiel", Revue d'études palestiniennes, 1998
  • Recherches Internationales, Crise et avenir de la solidarité internationale. "Hommage à Henri Curiel", n° 52–53, 1998
  • Charles Enderlin, Paix ou guerres. Les secrets des négociations israélo–arabes 1917–1995, Stock, Paris, 2004
  • Alexandre Adler at the AJOE Congress, 6 March 2006
  • Lucien Aimé-Blanc, Jean-Michel Caradec'h, L'Indic et le Commissaire, Plon, 2006
  • Jonathan C. Randal, "French Socialists Start Digging Into Overtones of Curiel Killing," International Herald Tribune, 24 August 1981

External links

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