Harvard University has pulled down the biography of a graduate student and freshman proctor who was captured on video accosting an Israeli student last week at a campus protest. The move came as the school announced the formation of a task force to assist student protesters whose names were publicized after they blamed Israel for Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist rampage.
The Dean of Students Office no longer includes a biography for Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a divinity school student who lives with university undergraduates in a supervisory role. Tettey-Tamaklo and others were captured on video pushing and shoving an Israeli student during a pro-Palestinian protest, video of the incident shows. The Israeli student was shoved as keffiyeh-clad attendees surrounded him, shouting, "SHAME!"
It is not clear whether the information was removed at Tettey-Tamaklo's request, whether Harvard took the initiative to protect him, or whether he has been removed from his role as proctor. Madeleine Currie, a resident dean of first-year students, did not respond to a request for comment, but a Harvard student familiar with the situation told the Washington Free Beacon that the freshman-year students in Tettey-Tamaklo's care have received no updates about his position.
Harvard has yet to publicly address the harassment of one of its students but has taken a strong stand against the public identification of student protesters, which Dean of Students Thomas Dunne called a "repugnant assault on our community."
Dunne, who oversees the school's Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, did not respond to a request for comment about whether his task force would assist the students captured on the video published by the Free Beacon, or whether Harvard had any plans to take disciplinary action against them.
Tettey-Tamaklo's behavior at the "die-in" protest has prompted criticism from prominent Harvard Business School alumni. Five of the school's graduates, including Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) and billionaire investor Seth Klarman, published an open letter on Monday hammering the school for its failure to protect Jewish students, citing the "die-in" protest as proof.
"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," the letter says. "Despite these serious concerns, University leadership shockingly has been paralyzed. … We fear that history is on the verge of repeating itself."
Hours after Hamas's terrorist assault on the Jewish state—which killed at least 1,300 Israelis, including women and children—Harvard Graduate School of Education dean Bridget Terry Long sent a message to students blaming the attack on both "Hamas and the Israeli government." Harvard president Claudine Gay later issued a statement that said the university was "heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas" but failed to denounce the student groups that defended Hamas.
Gay's response drew criticism from former Harvard president Larry Summers and other prominent alumni and donors.
"The delayed @Harvard leadership statement fails to meet the needs of the moment," Summers wrote on X. "Why can't we find anything approaching the moral clarity of Harvard statements after George Floyd's death or Russia's invasion of Ukraine when terrorists kill, rape and take hostage hundreds of Israelis attending a music festival?"