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'Clown school': Harvard slammed after pro-Palestinian student protesters clash with MBA scholar on campus

The tense encounter on October 18 saw six protesters surrounding the MBA student, using keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves, to block his view

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: A video has surfaced from a recent incident at Harvard University showing a confrontation between pro-Palestinian protesters and a Harvard MBA student who purportedly attempted to film them during their 'die-in' demonstration.

The brief clip depicts approximately six protesters surrounding the student, using keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves, to block his view as he tries to walk away from them.

Aerial news footage from NECN-TV shows the same student holding his phone aloft among the demonstrators, while organizers encircled him with the cloth blockade and appeared to push him at times.

Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar released a statement, describing the confrontation as "troubling."

He confirmed that the student swarmed by protesters was a Harvard MBA student and that the incident report had been filed with Harvard's campus police and the FBI.

The 'die-in' protest was organized by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee and Harvard Graduate Students for Palestine. Participants lay on the ground, holding signs to protest Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

This protest took place 11 days after an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

Emotions were running high during the demonstration, particularly following a deadly blast at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on October 17, which Hamas blamed on Israel, claiming the attack killed hundreds.

However, US and UK intelligence sources later contradicted these claims, supporting Israel's assertion that a failed rocket launch by Islamic Jihad within Gaza was responsible for the hospital explosion.

The protest began at Harvard's main campus in Cambridge and later moved to the HBS campus in Boston, where the 'die-in' took place, with demonstrators calling for an end to the Israeli airstrikes and referring to them as a "genocide" in Gaza. 

The Gaza health ministry, controlled by Hamas, reported that at least 8,796 Palestinians in the region, including 3,648 children, had been killed by Israeli strikes since October 7.

According to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, the man targeted by the pro-Palestinian demonstrators was a "disruptor" who was attempting to film the faces of the protesters.

Social media backlash after Harvard altercation

The Harvard administration faced significant criticism on social media, with individuals calling for immediate expulsions and questioning the university's response to the incident.

"Everyone of these students should be immediately expelled. What is wrong with college administration," one posted on X.

"What are @Harvard liberal campus authorities doing about this?" another asked.

"@Harvard you allow this?!? What are you doing about this? All these students pay your outrageous tuition but this is the education you provide and promote? I genuinely hope you lose every benefactor and alumni donation. You’re a high school," a comment read.

"Harvard has become a clown school… embarrassing for all the alum that went there when it actually meant something," someone else wrote.

"DEFUND HARVARD U NOW!!!" another insisted.

Addressing the confrontation

Dakar, the Dean of Harvard Business School, addressed the confrontation, stating, "The pro-Palestinian demonstration that crossed from Cambridge onto our campus last Wednesday, which included a troubling confrontation between one of our MBA students and a subset of the protestors, has left many of our students shaken."

He mentioned that reports had been filed with HUPD and the FBI, and an investigation was underway.

Dakar condemned antisemitism, Islamophobia, and hate speech and called for "robust dialogue and the expression of divergent points of view."

"Some protestors at Wednesday’s demonstration held banners and chanted words widely understood to call for the end of Israel— inciting the eradication of a nation and its people," the dean wrote.

"There is no place for hateful speech on our campus. It violates our community values—values that hold all of us to a higher standard than simply protecting free speech," he added.

Last week, Harvard University President Claudine Gay took action by assembling a group of advisors to address antisemitism on campus, following a series of incidents that garnered national attention.

She told a Harvard Hillel-hosted Shabbat dinner that "antisemitism has no place at Harvard" and expressed a commitment to confronting its presence on campus.

"For years, this university has done too little to confront its continuing presence. No longer," she declared at the event.