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David Gerald Littman (born July 4, 1933, in London, England) is a British historian^[2][3] and a human rights activist^[4][5] at the United Nations in Geneva, representing various NGOs gathered under the name "Association for World Education". He is the husband of Bat Ye'or.^[6]

Littman married his Egyptian-born wife Gisèle, who later became known under the nom de plume Bat Ye'or, in 1959 and they moved to Lausanne, Switzerland the following year.

The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization was founded by his brother, Louis Littman.^[7]

He was educated at Canford School, Dorset, England, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he earned his BA and MA degrees in Modern History and Political Science, followed by post-graduate studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London.

For four months in 1961, the 27-year-old Littman ran the Casablanca office of the Geneva-based international NGO for children Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants de l'Afrique du Nord (OSSEAN).^[1][8] There, Littman volunteered for a clandestine humanitarian mission arranged with the assistance of the Mossad to evacuate Jewish children from Morocco.^[1][8] At the time, Moroccan Jews were prohibited from leaving the country.^[1] Littman's code name was "Mural",^[8] and the code name for the mission was "Operation Mural". After months of negotiation by Littman, the children left Morocco in five convoys under the guise of a supposed holiday in Switzerland, and from there they went to Israel.^[1][8] In all, Littman assisted in the movement of 530 Jewish children to Israel.^[1][8]

In 1986, on the 25th anniversary of the operation, a gathering of the children was arranged and Littman was honored with a certificate in recognition of his activities.^[9][8]

In 2008, Israeli President Shimon Perez held a special commemorative event at the Presidential residence for Littman, with Littman's family and former key players from the Mossad.^[1] Littman was also to be honored by the Israel Intelligence and Commemoration Center in a ceremony in the summer of 2009.^[8]

In March 2009 Le Soir Echos, a Casablanca newspaper, interviewed Littman and published the Operation Mural story.^[8] It was the first time that Moroccans learned about the affair.^[8]

In 1970, the Littmans and friends of theirs founded the Centre d'Information et de Documentation sur le Moyen Orient in Geneva, which published studies on Middle East subjects until the mid-1980s.^{[citation needed]}

Littman has been presenting on human rights issues at the United Nations in Geneva since 1986.^[1] He appears before the United Nations Human Rights Council (formerly the United Nations Commission on Human Rights).^[1] After 1991, Littman worked with René Wadlow, main representative of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, then with the World Federalist Movement, and the Association of World Citizens. He has been a representative at the UN in Geneva for the Association for World Education since 1997, and the World Union for Progressive Judaism again since 2001. During his work at the UN, he has delivered or drafted over 300 oral and written NGO statements to the CHR and the Sub-CHR.

Release of Russian Jews

In 1987 Littman caused a walk-out by the entire Soviet delegation when he arranged for Natan Sharansky to speak at about refuseniks at the Council on behalf of the NGO "World Union for Progressive Judaism".^[1] That same year, Littman appeared before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, charging the Soviet delegate with antisemitism in an ascerbic diatribe,^[10] and in 1988 he appeared before a meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva which heard various "experts" discuss glastnost, raising the cases of several Jews in the USSR who were being refused the right to emigrate; he extended his request to Boris Yeltsin in 1991.^[11] In August 1989, he appeared before the UN Commission on Human Rights representing the NGO the World Union for Progessive Judaism (WUPJ).^[12][13]

Hamas

Since January 1989, Littman has sought to make public at the Commission the fact that Hamas in its ideology calls for the annihilation of Israel, and points to Islamic texts for support of its position.^[14][15]

Release of Syrian Jewish women

In October 1990, as the WUPJ's representative to the Commission, he petitioned for the release of single Jewish women from Syria; in March 1991, again representing the WUPJ, he urged the Commission to name a special representative to inquire into their situation; and in August 1991, he urged the Commission to work for their release.^[16][17]

Lebanese Jewish hostages

In August 1991 he appeared before the Commission on behalf of the WUPJ, stating that voices were being raised on all sides for the release of Lebanese Jews held as hostages in Lebanon.^[18][19] In December 1991, he wrote a letter on behalf of the WUPJ appealing to UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, asking him to discover the fate of the 11 Lebanese Jews who had been kidnapped in the mid-1980s.^[20]

Israel AIDS Libel

In March 1997 Littman responded to a Palestinian Authority charge that Israel had infected Palestinians with AIDS by reminding the Commission, in a speech to it, that this was not the first time such libels were leveled at Israel, inasmuch as in 1983 then-PLO-chairman Yasser Arafat accused Israel of "poisoning Palestinian schoolgirls" in a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General, a charge later shown to be false by a team of independent medical experts, according to the Jerusalem Post.^[21] The following month, despite Littman's request that Miroslav Somol (President of the Commission on Human Rights, and Czech Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva) take action against what Littman called the "mendacious and racist allegations", after meeting with a delegation of Arab ambassadors Somol withdrew his promise to circulate as an official UN Commission document his letter condemning a Palestinian representative's accusation that Israel spread AIDS among Palestinian babies.^[22]

Anti-Israel remarks and anti-semitism at the UN

When Israel withdrew from the Durban World Conference Against Racism in 2001, joining the U.S. in protesting anti-Israel and anti-Semitic remarks, The Hindu reported that in an appeal on behalf of the WUPJ Rabbi Francois Garai and "historian Mr. David Littman, who represent the [WUPJ] at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, said the Durban conference was being used to prepare a `holy war' against Israel and could wreck the world body." The appeal said:

"The U.N. is now undergoing its most shameful metamorphosis since its creation in 1945. Will you allow a U.N. conference intended to combat racism and discrimination to be brazenly hijacked by dictatorial regimes and mass demagogic NGO groups, thereby preparing a `final solution', `jihad', against Israel"?^[23]

Christoph Blocher

In December 2003, when Christoph Blocher won a seat in the Swiss Federal Council, Littman defended him from charges of anti-Semitism, saying "I personally do not accept the accusation that he is anti-Semetic and await with interest the new policies he will propose for Switzerland."^[24]

"Creeping Islamism" at the UN

In February 2006, Paul Beliën reported that Littman, "an expert on the 'creeping Islamism at the UN'", had been testifying before the UN as a representative for the Association for World Education to the UN in Geneva, "but was censored when he quoted moderate Muslims condemning Jihadist bombings. According to the 56 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Countries, even the use of "the prefix ‘Islamic' before ‘terrorism' is sacrilege.”"^[25]

Shariah, violence against women, and anti-semitism

The New York Daily News referred to Littman as a "rare but tenacious [voice] who confront[s] Islamic human rights abuses at the UN at every turn," and cited his complaining to the Council that Iranian law "still allows the marriage of girls at only 9 years old, and justifies the stoning of women for alleged adultery."^[26][27][28]

When Littman sought to make a three-minute statement before the Council’s eighth session in June 2008 (on behalf of the Association for World Education) with regard to various forms of violence against women and shariah, he was blocked from finishing his statement.^[1] Representatives from Egypt, Pakistan, and Iran (speaking on behalf the Organization of the Islamic Conference) forced a halt to the proceedings, saying that "Islam will not be crucified in this Council", and arguing that any discussion of Islamic law was an "insult" to the religion.^[1] A tense exchange—with 16 points of order—led to a 45-minute recess after which Council president Doru Romulus Costea of Romania said: "The Council is not prepared to discuss religious questions and we don’t have to do so. Declarations must avoid judgments or evaluation about religion."^[1] He told Littman to avoid any reference to the word shariah, and any evaluation of a religious matter.^[1][29] By not mentioning those words, Littman was allowed to conclude his statement after an hour and a half.^[1][30] At the Council's ninth session, when Littman spoke about the antisemitic writings of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, the Egyptian delegate objected:

"Here in the Council, we’re here to promote religious freedom. We can discuss religious freedom, but we cannot discuss religion. We cannot discuss the basic tenets of religion. I argue that except for the distinguished representative of the Holy See, nobody in this Council is qualified to discuss theology. . . . Really we should find something more interesting to do in life—like find a hobby, or grow a moustache or something."^[1]

Ordered by new Council President Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi to stop without completing his statement, Littman stepped down, saying, "This is impossible, sir."^[1] In March 2009 Littman was again cut short, this time for being "off topic" when calling for a universal condemnation of defamations of Judaism during a discussion of freedom of expression and hate speech.^[31]

Controversy attended lectures given by Littman and his wife at Georgetown University in October 2002 on "Ideology of Jihad, Dhimmitude and Human Rights". Littman presented a version of a talk he had given at the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, first providing a copy to the student organizers. One Jewish student requested that he not to deliver his lecture; he refused, and faced a negative reaction from Muslim students, in particular when he mentioned disapprovingly that Muhammad's favorite wife, Aisha, was a small child when she was married off to the Prophet. A story subsequently appeared in the campus newspaper in which a Georgetown Israel Alliance spokesman said: "The speakers gave us certain ideas about what they would speak about so that they could get in the door, and once they were in, they gave a completely different idea of what we had wanted. It was two-faced and manipulative." Littman said that unless the student organizers retracted their accusations that he and his wife deceived them, he would consider a libel suit. Littman and his wife said this demonstrated how the Jews and Christians of Georgetown had embraced a dhimmi mentality, by abasing themselves before the sensibilities of Muslims, whose co-religionists persecute and oppress Jews and Christians abroad, and that political correctness had demanded that Islam be represented as inherently peaceful and tolerant, and no explorations of its history and doctrines that would lead to a contrary view were deemed acceptable.^[32][33][34]

Early in his career, Littman's writings were published in the Wiener Library Bulletin, a periodical of the Wiener Library. Others have been published by the Centre d' Information et de Documentation sur le Moyen-Orient (CID), an organization of which Littman and his wife were co-founders. The CID disseminated its publications by mailing them to prominent people and institutions. Littman also published historical writings with Les Editions de l'Avenir, which distributed its publications in a similar manner.^[6] Since 1971, Littman has published articles on historical and human rights issues in academic journals, including in Jean-Paul Sartre's Les Temps Modernes, in the press, and in three books.^[6]

Littman contributed multiple chapters to The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims, edited by Robert Spencer, Prometheus Books 2005, ISBN 1-59102-249-5.^[35] Asia Times identified Littman as one of the few people willing to address directly and openly (lest they be called anti-Muslim) the question of what is ailing Islam in the 21st century in terms of: "Is it all simply a matter of interpretation (i.e., abuse for personal or political gain), or does the sustained prevalence of such patterns reveal something inherent about the faith?"^[36]

He also published a chapter in The Century of Moses Montefiore, published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, under the auspices of the Oxford University Press.^[37][38]

He has translated into English many articles by Bat Ye’or, and co-translated three of her major books, the last published in 2005.^[39][40]

• Arab Theologians on Jews and Israel (edited and introduction by D. F. Green – pseudonym of David Littman and Yehoshafat Harkabi), Editions de l'Avenir, Geneva, 1971-76: 3 eds. in English, 2 eds. in French, 1ed. in German (over 70,000 copies of all editions).
• David Littman, "Mission to Morocco (1863-1864)", in The Century of Moses Montefiore, (ed. Sonia and V.D. Lipman), Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 171-229.
• "Human Rights and Human Wrongs," N° 1 – 11 (verbatim oral and written statements: 1986-91 made by all accredited representatives of the WUPJ to the UNCHR and UN Sub-Commission, Geneva: 84 texts, of which 68 (oral) and 9 (written) by David Littman (WUPJ, Geneva, 1986-1991). (344 pages)
• David G. Littman (ed.) "Human Rights and Human Wrongs at the United Nations," Part 5 (pp. 305-472) in (Ed.) Robert Spencer, The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (Prometheus Books, Amherst, N.Y. 2005).
• "Protected Peoples under Islam" by David Littman and Bat Ye'or, CID, Geneva, 1976
• "Jews under Muslim Rule in the late Nineteenth Century," Wiener Library Bulletin 28, n.s. 35/36 (1975)
• "Jews under Muslim Rule, II: Morocco 1903-1912", Wiener Library Bulletin 29, n.s. 37/38 (1976)
• "Quelques Aspects de la Condition de Dhimmi: Juifs d'Afrique du Nord avant la Colonisation," in Yod, Revue des Etudes Hébraiques et juives modernes et contemporaines (Publications Orientalistes de France), 2: 1, October 1976 (Geneva, Avenir, May 10, 1997)
• "Jews under Muslim Rule: The Case of Persia," Wiener Library Bulletin, 32, n.s. 49/50 (1979)
• "Les Juifs en Perse avant les Pahlevi," Les Temps Modernes, 395, Juin 1979 (pp.1,910-35).
• "The U.N. Finds Slavery in the Sudan", Middle East Quarterly (Philadelphia), September 1996.
• "Dangerous Censorship of a U.N. Special Rapporteur," by Rene Wadlow and David Littman, Justice (Tel Aviv) No. 14, September 1997.
• "Universal Human Rights and 'Human Rights in Islam,'" Midstream (New York) February/March 1999, pp. 2-7
• "Islamism Grows Stronger at the United Nations," Middle East Quarterly, September 1999, pp. 59-64.
• "Syria's Blood Libel Revival at the UN: 1991-2000," Midstream, February/March 2000.
• "Utopia: A 'United States of Abraham'," Part 5, Chapter 48 (pp. 453-68) (Lecture: Society for Semitic Studies, Lund University, Sweden, November 23, 1994). Part 5, Chapter 48 (pp. 453-68), in The Myth of Islamic Tolerance.
• "Jihad and Jihadist Bombers; What’s in a name?," by David G. Littman, National Review, September 9, 2002, accessed January 12, 2010
• The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims, edited by Robert Spencer, Prometheus Books 2005, ISBN 1-59102-249-5, contributor of multiple chapters.