Egypt’s Henri Curiel Was a Revolutionary Beyond Borders

Born in Egypt, Henri Curiel spent much of his active political life in France, where he was the guiding force behind the Solidarity organization, a group that provided assistance to revolutionary movements in countries like Algeria and South Africa. This role earned Curiel many enemies: in 1976, the French right-wing magazine Le Point denounced him as “the boss of the terrorist support networks.”

Two decades after Curiel’s assassination in 1978, the late Israeli journalist Uri Avnery recalled his impressions of the Egyptian activist:

A thin, rather ascetic man, his eyes hidden behind thick glasses, unassuming, quite unobtrusive, he looked more like a professor of literature than a professional revolutionary. A casual observer would never have suspected that here was a man involved in a dozen struggles of liberation, hated and threatened by a dozen secret services.

Avnery first encountered Curiel during the Algerian struggle for independence from France of the late 1950s — a cause both men supported. Curiel subsequently worked with Avnery and others to arrange the first meetings between Israeli peace activists and representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Paris years for which Curiel became best known followed a period of intense activity in the nascent Egyptian communist movement between the 1930s and his expulsion from Egypt in 1950.

Curiel inspired passionate loyalty from his followers and intense loathing from his political rivals. His tactical flexibility and personal eccentricities tested the ideological constraints and stodgy style of orthodox, pro-Soviet communism. But he never deviated from the profound solidarity with immiserated Egyptians that he adopted during his youth.

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