[9] He was educated at Canford School, Dorset, England (1951), and Trinity College, Dublin, where he earned his BA with honours and MA degrees in Modern History and Political Science, followed by post-graduate studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London.
("An order of highest esteem and appreciation, awarded to David Gerald Littman: A clandestine warrior, who risked his life and who served a sacred cause of the People and of the State of Israel").
A few months earlier a Casablanca French newspaper, Le Soir Echos, interviewed him through a Swiss colleague, with their own questions; and published the Operation Mural story integrally in four successive issues (23–26 March) with their own positive titles and sub-titles throughout, and no editing.
[3] In 1970, the Littmans helped to found the Centre d'Information et de Documentation sur le Moyen Orient (CID) in Geneva, which published studies on Middle East subjects until the mid-1980s.
In February 1992, he joined René Wadlow (main representative of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation; (IFOR)), then with the World Federalist Movement (WFM).
[15][16] From January 1989 Littman 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.
[18][19] In August 1991, he appeared before the commission on behalf of the WUPJ to urge the release of Lebanese Jews held as hostages in Lebanon.
[20][21] In December 1991, he wrote a letter on behalf of the WUPJ appealing to UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, asking him to discover the fate of the 11 Lebanese Jews who had been kidnapped in the mid-1980s.
[22] When Israel withdrew from the Durban World Conference Against Racism in 2001, joining the US in protesting perceived anti-Israel and anti-Semitic remarks, The Hindu reported that Littman and WUPJ Rabbi Francois Garai filed a statement saying that the conference had been "hijacked by dictatorial regimes" interested in pursuing jihad against Israel.
"[24] 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.
[2][33] A similar incident occurred at the council's ninth session, when Littman had prepared a text protesting the antisemitic writings of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Egypt.
[2] In March 2009 he was again denied the opportunity to speak, 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.
[35][better source needed] 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.