Harvard University is under fire for its treatment of recently rewarded attackers who assaulted an Israeli student, according to a new lawsuit. The suit alleges Harvard “refused to take any reasonable action to punish” the students and instead “did everything it could to defend, protect, and reward” them. Video shows law student Ibrahim Bharmal and divinity school student Elom Tettey-Tamaklo shoving Israeli business student Yoav Segev during an October 2023 protest.
Both men faced criminal charges and entered a pretrial diversion program in April, agreeing to anger management and 80 hours of community service. Former Harvard president Claudine Gay had told Congress Harvard would finish its own disciplinary process after the case. Instead, Bharmal graduated with a $65,000 “public interest” fellowship, and Tettey-Tamaklo became a class marshal.
Segev’s lawsuit accuses Harvard of obstruction. The university told him he could only file a public, non-anonymous complaint, delayed its internal process for over a year, then rejected his complaint outright. Prosecutors said Harvard “refused to cooperate” with a follow-up investigation. Suffolk County assistant district attorney Ursula Knight called the school’s behavior “a shock to the Commonwealth.”
The lawsuit further claims Harvard’s police department “actively obstructed the investigation” and removed an officer who “was intent on pursuing Mr. Segev’s attackers until justice had been served.” It concludes Harvard “refused to enforce its policies in this case, at all, simply because Mr. Segev is Jewish.”
As Segev’s lawsuit explained, “With such blatantly misleading tactics, obfuscation, and misrepresentations, Harvard misled Mr. Segev and prevented him from ever obtaining administrative remedies.”
