Judge dismisses Harvard antisemitism lawsuit by a former student

"A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a discrimination lawsuit filed against Harvard by a former student, who had accused the university of acting with indifference to his complaints about campus protesters who he said had harassed him because he is Jewish. Judge Richard G. Stearns of the U.S. District Court in Boston said that Yoav Segev, who sued the university soon after completing his master's program at Harvard Business School, "has not shown that he experienced severe and pervasive racial harassment.""

"Segev's complaint dated back to a well-publicized episode on campus in October 2023, when he was a student, during a "die-in" protest on the grass in front of the business school. Two weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel, tensions were high, and hundreds of pro-Palestinian students lay on the ground pretending to be dead to protest Israel's incursion in the Gaza Strip. Segev, who is a citizen of the United States, Israel and Canada, according to his lawsuit, walked through the protest holding a camera phone."

"Video of the protest showed that he was quickly surrounded by other students, who yelled "shame!" and tried to block his camera lens with scarves. They formed a scrum, jostled him and forced him to leave. Videos of the confrontation drew thousands of views on social media. Republicans in Washington and some prominent Harvard alumni criticized the university's handling of the encounter. In his complaint, Segev said that he was "physically assaulted by an antisemitic mob," and that he was yelled at "for being Jewish and Israeli." Segev had accused Harvard officials of refusing "to take any reasonable action" to punish the students involved or offer Segev any redress."

A federal judge dismissed a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former Harvard Business School student who said protesters harassed him because he is Jewish. The judge found the plaintiff had not shown severe and pervasive racial harassment. The complaint arose from an October 2023 "die-in" protest two weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel, when hundreds of pro-Palestinian students lay on the business school lawn. Video showed the student walking through the protest with a phone, being surrounded, yelled at, jostled and forced to leave. The student accused Harvard of refusing to take reasonable action or offer redress.

Read at Boston.com