Roger Coudroy

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (October 2026) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must follow the LLM translation guideline, revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Roger Coudroy]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Roger Coudroy}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Roger Coudroy
one of the few verified pictures of Coudroy
Born	1935 (1935) Belgium
Died	June 3, 1968(1968-06-03) (aged 32–33) Palestine
Cause of death	Gunshot wound
Military career
Allegiance	Fatah
Service years	1968
Nickname	"Salah"
Known for	Being the first European nationalist fighter killed in the Palestinian struggle
Conflicts	Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Roger Coudroy, also known as Salah, (1935–1968) was a Belgian-born engineer with French citizenship, national-revolutionary activist, member of the neofascist Pan-European movement Jeune Europe and militant of the Palestinian organization Fatah. He died in 1968, shortly after joining Fatah, while engaged in fighting against the Israeli army.

Biography

Born in Belgium in 1935, Coudroy was educated and employed in France, before relocating to the Middle East as an engineer, working with various companies in both Beirut and Kuwait.

While abroad, Coudroy developed sympathies for the Palestinian cause. He subsequently left his position at Peugeot in Kuwait to establish contact with Palestinian militants, acting first as an independent reporter but later joining their ranks as a fighter.

Following less than a month of training, Coudroy requested to take part in military operations against the Israeli forces. He was subsequently killed in action by Israeli soldiers during one of these actions.

Coudroy documented his experiences in a diary, posthumously published as "J'ai vécu la résistance palestinienne" ("I lived the Palestinian resistance). In the text, he outlined his motives for joining Fatah and expressed support for Palestinian nationalism and the fedayeens.

The memoir has since been translated into several languages, including Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Bibliography

• J'ai vécu la résistance palestinienne, Roger Coudroy, 1968

Sources

• Francis Balace et al., De l'avant à l'après-guerre : l'extrême droite en Belgique francophone, Brussels, De Boeck-Wesmael, 1994.

References

This French biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

• v
• t
• e