RUTHFULLY YOURS

To honor the passing of David Littman we are re-publishing a post on “The Oeuvre of David Littman”, authored by Guy Milliere:

by Guy Milliere

Translated and edited from the French and published April 1, 2012 in Dreuz.info.

David Littman, a man I deeply value is afflicted with a dread disease. I promised a long article on his work, and it is the least we can do, really the least because his work, in every sense of the term, is important. I owe him much. We owe so much more to him than we can imagine.

He stayed for years, out of modesty, in the shadow of his wife, the great talented Islamic scholar Bat Ye’or. But he has accomplished much on his own.

As a humanitarian, he has with immense courage, risked his life, helping Jews facing very difficult situations to escape, survive, and achieve freedom and dignity. He led an organization called Work to Save the Children in North Africa and the legendary Operation Mural the subject of a film by Yehuda Kaveh, released in 2007.

He founded with his wife, the Center for Information and Documentation on the Middle East in Geneva in 1970. He acted tirelessly, with enthusiasm, tenacity and intelligence given every opportunity, to address the worst monstrosities emanating from a grotesque institution, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. since replaced by the equally grotesque United Nations Council for Human Rights.

He has written several monographs on the situation of Jews and Christians in the Muslim world. Among these is “The Truth About the Mideast; Fourteen Fundamental Facts about Israel and Palestine,” published in 2002 in the National Review in the U.S. Ten years later, he has lost none of his incisiveness. He edited with Yehoshafat Harkabi a book of inestimable value, Arab Theologians on Jews and Israel a critical analysis of the Fourth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research on the subject (1971), recently republished (4th ed. 2011).

He has published, with Paul Fenton, a book called Islam. This is one of the major references on the subject. It speaks so scrupulously and detailed about the “legal and social status of Jews in Islamic Maghreb between the Middle Ages and the era of French colonization.” It contains translated excerpts and annotated historical chronicles in Arabic and Hebrew, Muslim theological texts, eyewitness accounts written by European travelers – prisoners, diplomats, doctors, clerics, and adventurers. This is the kind of book you read and to which you constantly return when you need details and accurate sources.

It is, above all, a work that constitutes a final and conclusive answer to the legend so widespread of a peaceful and fraternal coexistence between Jews and Muslims in Islamic lands. Page after page is a succession of damning stories of harassment, humiliation, and violence.

We understand, through the text, why the arrival of France in North Africa was seen as their deliverance by the Jewish communities.

It is understood that the subjugation of Jews in the lands of Islam and Muslim Antisemitism have a deeply rooted existence.

We better understand the Muslim anti-Semitism as it exists today and how it has spread in Europe with the consequences we have seen.

For this book alone David Littman has made more than a contribution to history: a crucial and indispensable tool for those who struggle against the lies and for the dignity of human beings. He is to be thanked. We hope he finds in these words my personal thanks and the testimony of my gratitude.