Refaat Al-Gammal

According to the EGID, Refaat Ali Suleiman al-Gammal was born on 1 July 1927 in the city of Damietta, Kingdom of Egypt (nowadays the Arab Republic of Egypt). He was born into a well-off family that worked in the wholesale coal trade. His father, Ali al-Gammal (), was a coal merchant, while his mother, Rateeba Ali Abu Awad (), was a well-educated homemaker from an upper-class background who was fluent in both English and French. Sami worked as a private English tutor for the brothers of Queen Farida, the consort of Egypt's King Farouk, At fourteen, under family pressure and because of his practical interests, he enrolled in a commercial secondary school. During the mid-1940s he followed news of the World War II and expressed admiration for the British war effort. He studied English to near-native fluency with a British accent and improved his French with a Parisian teacher. His interest in acting also grew. On a school visit to a film studio he entered the dressing room of the actor Bishara Wakim, imitated a scene, and received advice to complete his education before pursuing acting, which he later credited with motivating him to finish school. al-Gammal completed a commercial secondary diploma in 1946 and briefly worked in film. He appeared in small roles including in productions with Beshara Wakim. During this period he had a first serious relationship with a teenage dancer named Betty; some sources identify her as the dancer Kitty. Their relationship became serious, and al-Gammal moved in with her, a step at odds with prevailing family and social norms. The decision angered his brother Labib and strained family relations. He later left both Betty and cinema work. Biographical accounts describe him at this stage as socially bold and adept at persuasion, traits later noted in narratives about his intelligence work. He graduated in 1946 and worked as an accountant for a Red Sea oil company before being dismissed over an allegation of theft. He then held several short-term jobs and became assistant to an accounting officer on the ship Horus, which took him abroad for the first time, with stops in Naples, Genoa, Marseille, Barcelona, Tangier and eventually Liverpool. In Liverpool he joined a tourism firm, later entering the United States without a visa and moving on to Canada and Germany. At the Egyptian consulate in Germany he was accused of selling his passport and denied travel documents, after which German authorities deported him to Egypt. Lacking both employment and identification, he obtained black-market papers under the name "Ali Mostafa" and found work with the Suez Canal company. After the 1952 revolution, British authorities tightened controls on document fraud. Fearing exposure, al-Gammal left his job, obtained a new forged passport from a Swiss journalist, and used several aliases. In 1953 a British officer detained him en route to Libya while he was carrying a British passport in the name "Danial Caldwell". Believing he might be Israeli, the officer transferred him to Egyptian intelligence. Investigators alleged he had posed as a Jewish officer, "David Artson", and also found checks signed "Refaat al-Gammal", noting his fluent Arabic. Under questioning by officer Hassan Hosny, he disclosed his real identity and described his activities and contacts. == Working for the EGID ==

Recruitment and intelligence work After confirming his identity, al-Gammal gave a detailed statement to Egyptian authorities. In interviews with officer Hassan Helmy, he said that while working in film he socialized with Egyptian Jews and, using his language skills and knowledge of their customs, and convinced some that he was Jewish. He also described his travel in England, France, and the United States, his repeated use of aliases, and his eventual return to Egypt. Infiltration into Israel Accounts differ on who recruited and handled Refaat al-Gammal for insertion into Israel. Some sources credit Hassan Helmy Bulbul, with Abdel Mohsen Faqih as his assistant. Others name Major General Abdel Aziz El-Toudy, who is said to have maintained contact with al-Gammal during the mission. A third view holds that the operation was a team effort rather than the work of a single officer. He began his mission in Egypt by establishing a cover in Alexandria. He lived in a Jewish neighborhood and presented himself as a European Jew from West Germany and northern France. In his memoirs, he states that while still in Alexandria he infiltrated Unit 131, a covert cell formed by Avraham Dar for Israeli military intelligence service (Aman), and that he worked with figures later known to Israeli operations, including Marcelle Ninio, Meir Max Bineth, and Eli Cohen. However, some within the Egyptian leadership misinterpreted this as referring solely to Syria, and Sinai defenses were not adequately reinforced. His role in the Lavon Affair The Lavon Affair refers to the scandal over a failed Israeli covert operation in Egypt known as Operation Susannah, in which Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt were bombed in the summer of 1954. It became known as the Lavon Affair after the Israeli defense minister Pinhas Lavon, who was forced to resign because of the incident, or euphemistically as the Unfortunate Affair (Hebrew: עסק הביש Esek HaBish). Israel admitted responsibility in 2005. In his diaries, al-Gammal mentions that he joined Unit 131, which was to carry out the operation, along with many names which later proved to be of great importance, such as Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who became an adviser to the defense minister in Syria. According to the EGID, al-Gammal had the major role in the discovery and arrest of the unit. Exposing the Eli Cohen network , 18 May 1965. One of the most remarkable episodes in al-Haggan's intelligence career that several accounts credited him with aiding the exposure of the Israeli agent Eli Cohen in Syria. According to his German wife who did not know that he was working for the EGID that during a trip back to Europe he saw a newspaper photo of a Syrian official named Kamel Amin Thaabet () standing with officers. Al-Gammal recognized the man as "Eli Cohen", whom he had met in an Egyptian prison in 1954 when both were detained on suspicion before being released. He reported to Egyptian intelligence that Thaabet was Cohen. Egyptian authorities relayed the information to Syrian services, which were already watching Cohen. He was arrested in Damascus in 1965 and later executed. While Syria's official account attributes the arrest to radio interception and other technical surveillance, Egyptian sources state that al-Haggan's tip hastened the outcome. End of mission and return to Egypt Refaat al-Gammal continued his work in Israel into the early 1970s. As the October 1973 war drew near, Egyptian intelligence decided to wind down his operation quietly. Remaining in place had become risky, and a sudden reappearance in Cairo could attract Mossad attention and endanger other networks. Some accounts state that the solution was for "Jacques Bitton" to relocate to Europe for marriage and permanent residence. In October 1963, during a visit to Frankfurt, he met a German woman named Waltraud, and they began a relationship. Waltraud, a 22-year-old divorcée with a daughter, knew only that her suitor was an Israeli businessman who ran a tourism company in Tel Aviv. They married soon after meeting in Frankfurt and lived in Tel Aviv for several years. By 1973, al-Gammal's mission had ended. After the October War he was no longer required to remain in Israel, and in early 1974 he left permanently for West Germany with his wife and their son, Daniel. He kept his assumed identity for security reasons. His memoirs state that cooperation with Egyptian intelligence ceased in the mid-1970s. He later re-entered Egypt presenting himself as a foreign investor. In 1977 he received approval to explore for oil and founded Egypteco. He obtained a concession in the Western Desert. President Anwar Sadat received him and directed the petroleum minister to facilitate the project without revealing his identity. The Ministry of Petroleum granted rights to develop an abandoned field previously run by Philips Petroleum. In January 1982, while ill with lung cancer, al-Gammal asked his wife, Waltraud, to continue her life and not wear black in mourning. After his death, his nephew, Mohamed al-Gammal, disclosed his true identity as an Egyptian intelligence operative in Israel. Waltraud had not been told of his work during their marriage. == Controversy over his allegiance ==

In 2004, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Raafat al-Haggan (operating in Israel as Jacques Bitton) had acted as a double agent for the Mossad. According to The Spies and reporting in Yedioth Ahronoth, Egyptian intelligence recruited Refaat al-Gammal in the early 1950s after legal troubles and gave him the identity "Jacques Bitton". He entered Israel among Egyptian Jewish immigrants with instructions to settle, start a business, and collect information. Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet, is said to have flagged him for background irregularities, including unusually fluent French for a putative Egyptian Jew. A search allegedly uncovered invisible ink and a radio codebook. Senior officials from Shin Bet, Aman, and Mossad then decided to try to run him as a double agent. The book states that in 1956 he opened a small travel agency, Sitour, on Brenner Street in Tel Aviv. Also, it was funded partly by Egyptian intelligence and partly by Shin Bet, which the authors cite as evidence of dual control. It also describes a personal life marked by frequent relationships. On a trip to Europe in October 1963 he met Waltraud, a divorced German woman with a young daughter, Andrea, and married her ten days later in a church ceremony. Rashad further stated that al-Gammal embedded in Israeli society after systematic training and that he recruited senior military figures; other officials likewise asserted that ongoing monitoring never indicated compromise. Public discussion in Egypt largely favors this view, presenting Raafat al-Haggan as a national intelligence figure. == Personal life ==

In mid-October 1963, Refaat al-Gammal married Waltraud Bitton, his only documented spouse. Although he was known for several romantic relationships, he did not marry anyone else. They met in early October 1963 during a trip to Europe. Waltraud was a 22-year-old German divorcée with a four-year-old daughter, Andrea. Throughout the marriage, Waltraud knew her husband as Jacques Bitton, and believed he was a Jewish Israeli businessman. In late 1981 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and his health declined rapidly. Some sources refer to a second wife named "Ally Walford", but later clarifications indicate this is another rendering of Waltraud's name and not a different person. The couple married in October 1963 and remained together until his death on 30 January 1982, a span of about 18 years and three months. After his intelligence work ended, Refaat al-Gammal entered the petroleum sector and founded Egypteco. President Anwar Sadat instructed the petroleum minister to assist him under his alias Jacques Bitton without disclosing his identity. The ministry granted him the abandoned Mileha well, previously relinquished by Philips Petroleum. The Petroleum Authority required oil transport by pipeline rather than by tanker truck, which he could not finance. Sadat reiterated his request for support, but little changed. The company declined, and after al-Gammal's death in 1982 his wife, Waltraud Bitton, sold it to the Canadian firm Denson. Al-Gammal had one son, Daniel, with Waltraud. He did not obtain Egyptian citizenship. As part of al-Gammal's cover, Egyptian records of his identity had been removed in the 1950s, leaving no paperwork to establish Daniel's claim. Waltraud and Daniel petitioned President Hosni Mubarak for an exception, which was denied for lack of official documentation. Daniel lived with European papers and no formal link to his father's country. == Death and memoirs ==

Refaat al-Gammal was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1981 and began chemotherapy in October that year. He died on 30 January 1982 at age 54 in Götzenhain, near Darmstadt, close to Frankfurt, where he had lived with his family under the name Jacques Bitton since the mid-1960s. Al-Gammal did not disclose his identity to his wife before his death. In his final months he handwrote a memoir and left it with his lawyer in Germany. He told him to give it to Waltraud three years after he died. In 1985 she received a box containing the manuscript and a farewell letter in which he revealed his identity and explained his reasons for keeping it secret. Waltraud learned of her husband's identity only after his death. In February 1982 she traveled to Egypt, visited his company in Cairo, and spoke with associates to verify the claims in his farewell letter. She later said she had forgiven him. She declared: "I would have married him all over again, even knowing the truth, despite the deception I lived through". After details of the operation were declassified, al-Gammal's story was published widely. In 1987, Al-Ahram issued Eighteen Years of Deception Against Israel: The True Story of Refaat al-Gammal, prepared with his wife. It had the farewell letter, his notes, and her account. Also, in that year Egyptian state television began producing a dramatic series about his life. == In popular culture ==

Raafat al-Haggan (Refaat al-Gammal) is remembered in Egypt and the Arab world as a celebrated intelligence operative. In 1988 the Egyptian service publicized his case as part of an effort to honor previously unnamed personnel, and some accounts state that a training facility adopted his codename. Israeli commentary remains divided on his role, but some former officials have described the long-running "Jacques Bitton" episode as a setback for Israeli counterintelligence because it allowed an operative to remain in place for years. Since the 1990s, fan groups, magazines, and online communities have circulated material on Raafat al-Haggan together with popular novels that dramatize his activities and social-media pages that share anecdotes and summaries of his case. His story has appeared in Israeli television as well, for example in the 2018 documentary series Spies in Tel Aviv, which briefly treated the affair from a Mossad perspective. In Egyptian colloquial speech, his name is sometimes used jokingly for someone who seems unusually shrewd or covert. On 4 February 1987, the writer Saleh Morsi described how he came to tell the story: after a chance meeting with a young Egyptian intelligence officer who urged him to read a case summary, he consulted Mohsen Moqtamas (ʿAbd al-Muḥsin Fāʾiq), who declined to reveal further identifying details, and then met ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Tūdī (who used the pseudonym ʿAzīz al-Jabbālī); over ten handwritten chapters totaling 208 pages, al-Tūdī outlined nearly two decades of operations. == See also ==