The Harvard “die-in” sparked a debate over protests and sanctions

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian students lined the grass in front of Harvard Business School, pretending to be dead. An Israeli-American student appeared, holding a camera phone.

It was two weeks after Hamas’ attack on Israel, and tensions were high. The student with the camera was quickly surrounded. Protesters blocked his goal with scarves, shouting “Shame.” They formed a scrum and forced him out of the box.

The police present at the scene did not intervene. But two years later, as Harvard struggles to blunt the impact of the Trump administration’s attack on higher education, continuing disagreements over what happened — and who was hurt — illustrate how the national debate over the war between Israel and Gaza continues to divide Americans, on and off campus.

The protest has become a touchstone in a broader debate about campus unrest, cited repeatedly by Republican government officials questioning how Harvard has responded to the protests. Justice Department lawyers invoked it in federal court in Boston in June. Lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services also cited it as evidence that Harvard permitted a hostile atmosphere toward Jews.

Last month, the altercation was the subject of a letter from the House Education and Workforce Committee threatening to cut off Harvard’s funding.

A lawsuit filed against Harvard in July by Yoav Segev, the Israeli-American student, accuses the university of conducting a “sham investigation” into his assault. This is the main civil case still pending against the university over its handling of the protests.

Mr. Segev’s lawyer, Mark Pinkert, called the episode “a key inflection point in campus anti-Semitism” since October 7, 2023, the day Hamas attacked Israel. He and congressional Republicans argued that nothing was done to punish the protesters and that “blatant discrimination enabled the anti-Semitic fervor that followed at Harvard and continues today.”

The protesters, one black and the other Asian, say they are the ones who have suffered prejudice and unfair treatment, including punishment for actions they believe are not illegal.

Debates over the treatment of anti-Semitism on campus and whether discrimination against certain groups is taken more seriously than others have reverberated across the country. Universities have cracked down on protests and tightened rules around activism. Teachers and students were disciplined, expelled and fired. Campuses are torn over which forms of speech should be tolerated and which should be penalized.

The protests have long since subsided, but the problems appear far from over. Ruling Republicans continue to question whether universities are doing enough to change campus culture, even as many students say the pendulum toward sanctions has swung too far.

The protests, said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of education history at the University of Pennsylvania, “have become the new stick of the new cancel culture warriors.”

A ‘die-in’ that never died

The die-in was timed to coincide with an appearance on campus by former President Barack Obama. He canceled at the last minute, but the protest continued. Hundreds of students marched on a lawn near Harvard Business School, chanting “free and free Palestine.”

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a Ghanaian American student at Harvard Divinity School, and Ibrahim Bharmal, a Pakistani American student at Harvard Law School, had been invited by organizers to serve as monitors to protect other protesters.

A number of counter-protesters were present at the scene, but Mr. Segev’s actions stood out, Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo recalled in a recent interview. Mr. Segev walked among the lying protesters, trying to photograph their faces.

“We had seen an increase in the number of people being doxxed in trucks. So why would you record at close range?” » said Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo. “More so, we just didn’t want him to step on people. So we engaged him with our kaffiyehs.”

Video of the moments that followed showed protesters forming a wall with scarves around Mr. Segev. There was some pushing and shoving. The students shouted “get out” and “shame”.

Mr. Segev left, speaking briefly with a police officer before going to take a test. Later that day, he said he had not seen a doctor and did not want to file a complaint, according to police reports filed in court. But he also told police he was pushed, shoved and touched against his will.

That night, during internal discussions about whether to issue a statement about the protest, Alan M. Garber, who was then dean of Harvard and is now its president, sent a text message to Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar, appearing to suggest that Mr. Segev had provoked the skirmish.

“Another complication is that even if (the Israeli student) was technically within his rights… (the) way he was taking videos seems provocative,” according to an excerpt from a text written by Dr. Garber, cited in the letter released last month by the House committee.

But videos of the protest garnered thousands of views on social media. The FBI quickly joined the investigation. In November, Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager, and other Harvard alumni attacked the university’s handling of the incident.

On Capitol Hill, Representative Bob Good, a Virginia Republican, falsely told a hearing that Mr. Segev had been pushed to the ground. The Ministry of Education demanded the expulsion of the two protesters.

In May 2024, after a months-long investigation, Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo and Mr. Bharmal were charged with misdemeanor assault as well as hate crime violations.

Mr Tettey-Tamaklo said he inadvertently touched Mr Segev’s backpack, but insisted he had committed no crime. “There was no assault here. I saw the headlines and I couldn’t believe they were talking about me,” he said.

In a message to the New York Times, Mr. Bharmal denied ever intending to intimidate, harm or touch Mr. Segev.

Lawyers for Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo and Mr. Bharmal, who are now both 29, argued that they were singled out because they were people of color.

“It became a good case study because it involved an Arab and a black man in such a way that they could use racist language to build on these stereotypes,” said Hussein Rashid, a former Harvard Divinity School professor who knows Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo.

Peacemakers in conflict

Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo was born in the United States but grew up in Accra, Ghana, as a Christian Zionist in a country with strong ties to Israel. His father is a diplomat, and Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo said he had an epiphany after visiting the Palestinian territories and witnessing what he described as heartbreak and injustice, then teaching in Ramallah and working with the United Nations in Jordan.

When war broke out in Gaza, he became a staunch supporter of the Palestinian side.

Mr. Segev is also the son of a diplomat. Mr. Segev declined an interview request, but in a police interview days after the episode he described himself as a peacemaker. His Harvard Business School admissions essay featured a project to establish business collaborations between Palestinians and Jews.

Mr. Segev did not initially file a complaint, but his father, Ilan Segev, a former Israeli consul in Atlanta, later sent an email to the police saying he had identified the protesters and that “his son wanted to press charges,” according to court records. The elder, Mr. Segev, is a Harvard Business School alumnus who served as co-chairman of the Boston chapter of the Israeli-American Council, a national organization.

In court papers, lawyers for Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo and Mr. Bharmal raised questions about the Harvard police detective assigned to investigate, noting in court papers that the Harvard Police Department suspended him after an incident in which he confronted a black colleague with homophobic and racist slurs.

But the criminal charges against the two men were ultimately dropped.

Instead, they had to do community service, including picking up trash, but both graduated in May. Mr. Bharmal holds a law degree and Mr. Tettey Tamaklo has a master’s degree in theological studies.

The outcome outraged Republicans, including leaders of the education committee that called on university leaders to testify about the treatment of Jewish students on campus.

“Harvard does not appear to have sanctioned – but instead rewarded – two students who assaulted a Jewish Israeli student who was filming a ‘death’ protest,” the leaders, Reps. Elise Stefanik and Tim Walberg, wrote in September.

Among their complaints was that Mr. Bharmal had been awarded a $65,000 grant by the Harvard Law Review to advance his work with a Muslim civil rights organization in his native California.

The committee demanded documents and threatened the university with possible removal of federal funding if it did not comply.

Mr. Bharmal and Mr. Tettey-Tamaklo say they faced other repercussions, including harassment and threats. Mr Tettey-Tamaklo, who was considering a career in international humanitarian aid, said he was still looking for permanent employment.

“I’ve had to pass up a lot of opportunities because, ‘Who wants to be associated with Elom?’ “, he said. “I was the chosen character in this horrible theater.”