Harvard University is again urging a federal court to throw out a lawsuit brought by former graduate student Yoav Segev, who says the institution unlawfully refused to discipline students and faculty who harassed him because he is Jewish. The university’s legal filing marks its second and final attempt to dismiss the case. If denied, the case will move to trial.

Segev’s lawsuit centers on an October 2023 incident in which he was surrounded and pursued across Harvard Yard by pro-Hamas activists who chanted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and thrust keffiyehs in his face. Video of the event drew national outrage as Harvard faced growing accusations of failing to protect Jewish students. The activists, identified as student leaders Ibrahim Bharmal and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, never faced disciplinary consequences and have since gone on to earn prestigious honors at the university.

Despite this, Harvard’s latest filing downplays the episode as a “single, short-lived event” involving “shouting and some brief instances of non-injurious physical contact,” arguing that Segev has not demonstrated legal harm. The university says his complaint improperly tries to rely on broader antisemitic incidents that he did not personally experience.

Segev’s attorneys responded by accusing Harvard of pursuing a “morally indefensible” strategy designed to erase allegations the school “knows are true.” They say the administration not only ignored student harassment but also faculty behavior, claiming some professors publicly suggested Segev’s presence “as a Jew” was threatening to others. They argue that Harvard repeatedly misled Segev, denied him a fair process, and protected his harassers while failing to safeguard the broader Jewish community on campus.

The case has become a symbol of Harvard’s deeper institutional failures. The campus endured months of turmoil after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, as student groups issued statements blaming Israel for the attack, activists occupied academic buildings while chanting “globalize the intifada,” and faculty organizations circulated antisemitic imagery. The Harvard Law School Student Government passed a resolution accusing Israel of genocide, and a cascade of antisemitic incidents drew national condemnation. Harvard’s leadership crisis culminated in the resignation of President Claudine Gay after her congressional testimony waffled on whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated campus policy.

Meanwhile, the students who led the mob harassment of Segev have advanced without consequence. Bharmal secured a coveted clerkship with the D.C. Public Defender Service and received a $65,000 Harvard fellowship to work with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose leaders have defended Hamas’s atrocities. Tettey-Tamaklo graduated with honors, served as class marshal leading Harvard’s commencement procession, and now teaches at the university.

Facing mounting reputational damage, Harvard has attempted to reposition itself since President Donald Trump’s 2024 election. The university has settled lawsuits requiring adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, shuttered certain far-left academic initiatives tied to anti-Zionist activism, and launched new partnerships with Israeli institutions. Harvard officials present these moves as evidence of long-standing ties to Israel, though critics say they represent reactive image management rather than genuine reform.

With Harvard now pressing the court to dismiss Segev’s case, the decision before the judge is larger than the legal technicalities of harm or standing. It represents a test of whether Harvard must finally account for its role in allowing a hostile environment for Jewish students — or whether the institution can sidestep deeper accountability by reframing an act of mob harassment as trivial and isolated.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)