Henri Curiel

Henri Curiel (September 13, 1914 - May 4, 1978) was a political activist, founder of a communist organization in Egypt. He was involved in the support of several national liberation causes until his assassination in Paris on May 4, 1978. Henri Curiel is buried at Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris.

File:Grave of Henri Curiel.JPG

The grave of Henri Curiel at Père Lachaise

Egypt

Born in Cairo to a Jewish family of Italian origins, he was the cousin of Eugenio Curiel, physicist and anti-fascist militant murdered in Italy in 1945. He was also the uncle of the famous British KGB spy George Blake.

Henri Curiel founded in 1943 the communist Egyptian Movement for National Liberation (HAMETU), which became in 1947 the Democratic Movement for National Liberation (HADETU). Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he was repeatedly arrested along with many communists and, despite his Egyptian citizenship, forced to emigrate in 1950. He established himself in France and led with a circle of Jewish communist emigres from Egypt a structure known as the "Rome Group".

An anticolonialist activist

Henri 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 French security services in 1960. Curiel was then one of the founders of "Solidarité", a support group for various anticolonial and opposition movements in the Third World (in particular Africa and Latin America), such as the African National Congress (ANC).

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

On June 21, 1976, Georges Suffert published in the French magazine Le Point an article presenting 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 charges were proved inexistent .

Assassination on May 4, 1978

Henri Curiel was assassinated in Paris on May 4, 1978. A far-right group claimed responsibility, but the case is still unsolved. Speculations persist in three directions:

• Jean-Pierre Maïon, a French criminal linked to the SDECE and the OAS, who worked as informant for Lucien Aimé-Blanc, and would have killed Henri Curiel on behalf of the GAL Spanish death squad
• the Abu Nidal group (which allegedly shot later also Issam Sartawi), allegedly commissioned by the KGB.
• the South African apartheid secret police (for his help to the ANC)

Bibliography

• Georges Suffert, Le patron des réseaux d'aide aux terroristes, Le Point, June 21, 1976
• Roland Gaucher, Le Réseau Curiel ou la subversion humanitaire, Jean Picollec, 1981
• Gilles Perrault, Un homme à part, Bernard Barrault, 1984
• 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
• Alexandre Adler at the AJOE Congress, March 6, 2006
• Lucien Aimé-Blanc, Jean-Michel Caradec'h, L'Indic et le Commissaire, Plon, 2006

See also

• List of assassinated people
• Anti-colonialism
• Wars of national liberation
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

External links

• The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry - Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora
• Inventory of the papers of the. EGYPTIAN COMMUNISTS IN EXILE (ROME GROUP)
• The silent idealist by Uri Avnery, Le Monde diplomatique, April 1998
• BASE DE DONNEES SUR LES ACTES TERRORISTES
• Spies Encyclopedia - Blake, George