Henri Curiel (13 September 1914 – 4 May 1978) was a Jewish-Egyptian communist activist. Born in Egypt, he led the Democratic Movement for National Liberation until he was expelled from the country in 1950. Settling in France, Curiel aided the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale and other national liberation causes, including in South Africa and Latin America. He was also involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
Early life and family
Curiel was born in Cairo to an
Italian-Jewish Sephardic Jewish family. He became an Egyptian citizen in 1935.
[Beinin, Was the Red Flag Flying There?, 1990, pp. 106–107.] His brother
Raoul Curiel became a respected
archaeologist and
numismatist, specializing in Central Asian studies. A cousin was
Eugenio Curiel, a physicist and
anti-fascist militant who was murdered in Italy in 1945. Another cousin was the British
KGB spy
George Blake. In a 1991 interview,
[L'Express, Paris, 21 Feb 1991] Blake said that the older Curiel had been influential as a communist in shaping his political views, as Blake met him as a teenager.
Political career in Egypt
In 1939 Curiel, his brother Raoul and Georges Henein launched
Don Quichotte, a French language communist weekly.
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. Curiel settled in France and led a circle of Jewish communist emigres from Egypt known as the "Rome Group".
[Beinin, Joel. "Egypt’s Henri Curiel Was a Revolutionary Beyond Borders" Jacobin. 09.12.2024.]
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.
Anti-colonial activism in Paris
Curiel worked for the
Jeanson network which supported the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) during the
Algerian War (1954–62). He was arrested by the
SDECE 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).
Beginning in the 1950s, Curiel initiated meetings in Europe between Israeli and Arab left-wing groups and individuals, working towards a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Participants in such meetings included Emile Habibi, Amos Kenan, members of Maki and of the Sudanese and Iraqi Communist Parties, and others.[Joel Beinin. Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Eqypt and Israel 1948-1965. United States, University of California Press, 1990. Page 148 ff.] In 1976 he initiated contacts with and Palestinians representatives willing to negotiate a mutual recognition. Several meetings, later known as the "Paris talks", were organized.
On 21 June 1976, Georges Suffert published an article in Le Point naming Curiel as the "head of the terrorist support network", connected with the KGB. He was put under house arrest in Digne, an administrative measure that was lifted once the accusation was demonstrated to be untrue.[ "Henri Curiel, citizen of the third world", Le Monde diplomatique, April 1998 ]
An American CIA report from 1981 (a 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."[ Soviet Support for International Terrorism and Revolutionary Violence: Special National Intelligence Estimate (1981). p. 23. Available at ]
Assassination
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:
-
Jean-Pierre Maïon, a French criminal linked to the 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
[Lucien Aimé-Blanc, 2006]
-
Abu Nidal group (it allegedly later shot Issam Sartawi), allegedly commissioned by the KGB
[Alexandre Adler, 2006]
-
South African Bureau of State Security (because of Curiel's aid to the ANC)
Personal life
His son is the French journalist
Alain Gresh, who was born in Cairo in 1948. Gresh knew Curiel as a family friend and only learned in his late twenties that he was his son.
[ Myself with Others: Adam Shatz with Alain Gresh]
Legacy
Henri Curiel is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.
Curiel's work in promoting dialogue between the PLO and left-wing Israelis was continued throughout the 1980s by the Comité Palestine et Israël Vivront, headed by Sorbonne lecturer Joyce Blau – Curiel's close associate and fellow Egyptian exile.[The archives of the Comité Palestine et Israël Vivront are deposited at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam [4]]
In fiction
Henri Curiel appears in several parts of
Ted Allbeury's 1982
spy thriller Shadow of Shadows, where he is depicted as George Blake's KGB contact.
See also
Notes
-
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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
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Gilles Perrault, "Henri Curiel, citizen of the third world". Le Monde Diplomatique online, English edition, 1998/04/13, http://mondediplo.com/1998/04/13curiel
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Alain Gresh, The PLO: The Struggle Within: Towards an Independent Palestine, London: Zed Books, 1985
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Jacques Hassoun, "La vie passionnée d'Henri Curiel", Revue d'études palestiniennes, 1998
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Recherches Internationales, Crise et avenir de la solidarité internationale. "Hommage à Henri Curiel", n° 52–53, 1998
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Charles Enderlin, Paix ou guerres. Les secrets des négociations israélo–arabes 1917–1995, Stock, Paris, 2004
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Alexandre Adler at the AJOE Congress, 6 March 2006
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Lucien Aimé-Blanc, Jean-Michel Caradec'h, L'Indic et le Commissaire, Plon, 2006
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Jonathan C. Randal, "French Socialists Start Digging Into Overtones of Curiel Killing," International Herald Tribune, 24 August 1981
External links
