Harvard Students Plead Not Guilty to Assault on Israeli

Boston courtroom is packed with allies on both sides — keffiyehs and kippot

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo is one of two Harvard students facing criminal misdemeanor charges for what prosecutors say was assault and battery and a violation of the civil rights of an Israeli student. Photo: Ira Stoll, The Editors

Ibrahim Bharmal, center, is one of two Harvard students facing criminal misdemeanor charges for what prosecutors say was assault and battery and a violation of the civil rights of an Israeli student on the Harvard Business School campus. Photo: Ira Stoll, The Editors

Two Harvard students, Elom Tettey-Tamaklo and Ibrahim Bharmal, entered not guilty pleas this morning in Boston Municipal Court on misdemeanor criminal charges of assault and battery and of interfering with the civil rights of another student during an anti-Israel protest on the Harvard Business School campus.

A prosecutor from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office told Judge Stephen McClenon that “there is an ongoing investigation” into the clash during the October 18, 2023 demonstration. “This is a continuing investigation,” she said, suggesting that law enforcement officials are continuing to seek information about the identity of other students involved in the event.

Lawyers for Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal said they would move to dismiss the cases based on “lack of proper cause” and “selective enforcement” based on “race, ethnicity, and religion.”

“This was a brief episode on a university campus over a year ago,” said Monica Shah, a lawyer at Zalkind, Duncan, and Bernstein, who was representing Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal. She referred to “our clients who are black and brown,” and claimed the prosecution had been “tainted by racial and religious bias.”

Shah also said there was no evidence of intent.

While the arraignment was not a hearing on the motions to dismiss, the prosecutor said the case is straightforward. “The defendants’ conduct is on video,” she said.

The two students were released on personal recognizance and ordered to stay away from the victim of the alleged crime. They were also told to keep the peace.

The next scheduled court date in the case is January 17. Judge McClenon agreed to a request from defense lawyers that Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal not be required to appear in person that that hearing, which will be devoted to pretrial motions.

Shah also complained about the claim that the investigation is ongoing. “This case is being used as a vehicle….to charge other people,” she said.

A large, high-ceiling courtroom in the Boston Municipal Court’s Brighton Division was jam-packed for the court date, which had previously been postponed several times and had been the subject of national media attention in advance. The spectators included a mixture of Lubavitcher hasidim—one wearing an Israel Defense Forces kippah—and keffiyeh-wearing Harvard student anti-Israel activists. All were subject to an airport-style security screening before entering the courtroom. 

Tettey-Tamaklo, who is from Ghana and has dreadlocks, stood in a blue suit for the duration of the nearly hourlong hearing. Bharmal, who has been identified as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, was dressed less formally and was wearing a mustache. Neither student was escorted by court marshals or handcuffed the way you sometimes see in a criminal proceeding. 

The accused students have been supported by Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Israel group. Diane Moore, the founding faculty director and associate dean of Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School and a lecturer on Religion, Conflict, and Peace at Harvard Divinity School, was in attendance at the hearing and afterward embraced Tettey-Tamaklo, a Harvard Divinity student.

At this morning’s hearing, there was also some technical procedural wrangling between the lawyers over the scope of discovery requests made to the Harvard University Police Department and over communication between the prosecutor and the court that was not shared with defense counsel but that also was not formally an ex parte communication. The prosecutor hinted that if the “ongoing investigation” yielded additional charges against other students, it could undercut the selective prosecution claim.

The October 18, 2023 event was a factor in escalating the crisis at Harvard that had been building for a long time but that went to a new level after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel. It triggered a letter from prominent Harvard Business School alumni including Joanna Jacobson, Mitt Romney and Seth Klarman, that said, “The videos that have been made public, particularly the most recent violent assault of an Israeli student on the Harvard Business School campus, allow us all to see how Jewish and Israeli students are targets of threats and violence from groups of pro-Palestinian students.”

In the months that followed, Harvard president Claudine Gay was forced to resign, while applications and donations to Harvard declined. Donald Trump made violent campus antisemitism a campaign issue, inviting one of the students suing Harvard, Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, to speak at the Republican National Convention. The university faces a federal discrimination lawsuit brought by Jewish students who say there is a pervasively hostile climate of antisemitism on campus that interfered with their education.