Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

342 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:341
Honoring Those Who Fight Antisemitism
David Littman
(1933-2012)
David Gerald Littman was a British historian and human rights activist and tireless
fighter against antisemitism and anti-Israeli rhetoric. David married writer Gisèle
Orebi (Bat Ye’or). At age 27, he volunteered on a Mossad mission to evacuate
Jewish children from Morocco to Israel (see “Operation Mural”—JSA 3, No. 2). He
has addressed human rights issues at the United Nations in Geneva since 1986. In
March 1987, he precipitated the Soviet delegation walkout when he arranged for
Natan Sharansky to address the plight of the Jewish refuseniks. David sought to
make public the fact that Hamas calls for the annihilation of Israel. Responding to a
Palestinian Authority charge that Israel had infected Palestinians with AIDS, he
defended Israel against the libel. After London’s 7/7 bombings, he tried to convince
the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights to condemn killings in the name of
religion, but was interrupted so many times by delegates from Muslim countries he
could not finish his request. The New York Daily News referred to David Littman as
a “rare but tenacious [voice] who confront[s] Islamic human rights abuses at the
UN at every turn.” He is survived by his wife, Bat Ye’Or, two children, and their
grandchildren.