Harvard alum Bill Ackman is demanding that his alma mater take disciplinary action against a group of pro-Palestinian students — among them the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — who are seen in a viral video surrounding a Jewish peer on campus during a demonstration following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.
Ackman took to X and demanded that Harvard suspend the students seen in the video blocking the way of an individual purported to be a supporter of Israel.
One of the pro-Palestinian students has been identified as Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the Harvard Law Review.
“How does this man remain Editor of the Harvard Law Review?” Ackman wondered in a post written on his X social media account Wednesday.
“How are these students not immediately suspended? How does this not violate @Harvard’s code of conduct for students?” Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, wrote on X.
“How would Harvard respond if the affected student were Black, Latino, or LGBTQIA?”
Amateur video that went viral on social media shows a group of pro-Palestinian students holding traditional Arab headscarves while surrounding a student believed to be Jewish.
“Shame, shame, shame!” the pro-Palestinian students are seen shouting as they obstruct the path of the student, who tries to get away.
The Post has sought comment from Bharmal and Harvard.
Since the surprise Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which claimed the lives of at least 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers, Ackman has been vocal on social media.
The founder of Pershing Square Capital Management enlisted the support of at least a dozen other business executives who pledged not to hire Harvard students who are members of organizations that circulated a letter blaming Israel for the Hamas atrocities.
Ken Griffin, another hedge fund billionaire who graduated from Harvard, demanded that the school’s administrators forcefully condemn Hamas.
Griffin, the Citadel CEO who has donated some $500 million to Harvard, has pledged not to hire the leaders of student groups that signed onto an anti-Israel letter.
The move to deny employment opportunities to students is a bridge too far for Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary and ex-president of Harvard.
Summers, who publicly blasted school administrators for not forcefully denouncing the Hamas attacks and the student letter, said he did not support Ackman’s call to name the students involved in the groups that attached their names to the letter.
Ackman on Wednesday also weighed in on a letter sent by more than a dozen of the most powerful law firms on Wall Street warning university deans that they would not hire students who engage in antisemitic harassment or discrimination on college campuses.
“It’s pathetic that we need to rely on law firms and corporations to police antisemitism on campus,” Ackman wrote in response to the letter, which was spearheaded by the senior chair at Sullivan & Cromwell.
Ackman also commented on a viral video showing an unidentified individual believed to be a Harvard student declaring his “love” for Hamas.
He said he did not support efforts to name the individual, who is seen in the clip wearing facial covering, though he did say that TikTok should “probably” be banned due to its “massively manipulating public opinion” in favor of Hamas.
TikTok has denied the claim.
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