One of two Harvard students who assaulted a Jewish classmate during an anti-Israel protest in October 2023 has been appointed as class marshal by Harvard Divinity School at the upcoming graduation ceremony.
This comes just three weeks after the other assailant was awarded a $65,000 Harvard Law School fellowship to work at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The Harvard Law Review website says its $65,000 fellowship goes to recent Harvard Law School graduates “with a demonstrated interest in serving the public interest through their work and scholarship.”
In October 2023, Ibrahim Bharmal and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo surrounded a Jewish student named Yoav Segev and covered him with keffiyehs while shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as he tried to free himself and said “don’t touch me.”
While Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo originally faced a criminal trial, Boston Municipal Court Judge Stephen W. McClenon dismissed the charges at the end of April, instead ordering them to attend “pre-trial diversion” anger management courses and perform 80 hours of community service.
.@HarvardDivinity student Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, who was filmed accosting a Jewish student at an anti-Israel rally, was indefinitely relieved of his duties as a freshman proctor & asked to vacate his dorm room due to "student discomfort." https://t.co/cGirrBZvAf pic.twitter.com/zQ3TWy5ROb
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) November 15, 2023
Segev told the court that “they refused to take any responsibility for their actions” and that they had launched a media campaign against him in an attempt “to mischaracterize me as the aggressor.”
Monica Shah, Bharmal’s lawyer, told the judge, “It was not hands-on. It involved a scarf, and there’s no physical injuries.”
The same week as the judge dismissed the charges, the Harvard Law Review awarded Bharmal the $65,000 fellowship, and then this week it was reported that Tettey-Tamaklo has been appointed as marshal.
The Free Press obtained a letter from Segev’s lawyers, which said, “Harvard’s silence and inaction are grounded in nothing other than blatant antisemitism.”
“Segev has not only been subjected to an extremely hostile, antisemitic environment at Harvard, but he was also assaulted, battered, and harassed by a rabid mob of Harvard students and employees.”
Has the university been ignoring lawyer's letters?
The lawyers added that the university itself has ignored two of Segev’s most recent letters.
“The assailants have perversely benefited from their antisemitic violence and vitriol, getting praise from Harvard social media and Bharmal receiving a paid fellowship from the Harvard Law Review. Tettey-Tamaklo is also being given the honor of serving as marshal at graduation.”
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Bharmal was also awarded a law clerkship with the Public Defender for the District of Columbia in 2024, a government-funded agency that pro bono counsels individuals charged with committing serious criminal acts.
The Jerusalem Post reached out to Harvard’s Law and Divinity schools for comment.