#elom tettey-tamaklo

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Dion J. Pierre Dozens of anti-Israel student groups at Harvard University, along with several allied campus groups across the US, have issued a set of demands to Harvard President Claudine Gay and given her until Monday to respond, adding further fuel to what’s become an explosive situation at one of the world’s most elite universities over the Israel-Hamas war. Earlier this week, students protested on campus and issued the list of demands, which included the reinstatement of a student proctor who three weeks ago participated in mobbing a Jewish student and screaming “Shame!” into his ears.  According to The Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, the university had suspended indefinitely Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a second year student at the Harvard Divinity School, from his role as a proctor over his involvement in the incident, video of which went viral earlier this month. Tettey-Tamaklo reportedly has been ordered to vacate free housing he received as compensation for holding the position, which gives graduates the opportunity to mentor freshmen. This week, the students also demanded that Gay commit to pursue no disciplinary or punitive actions against “pro-Palestinian students and workers engaging in non-violent protest.” The letter came as, according to The Harvard Crimson, eight undergraduates students had been summoned to hearings as part of disciplinary proceedings against students who last week occupied University Hall on campus for 24-hours. The third demand in the letter to Gay was for Harvard to “disclose [its] investments in the internationally recognized illegal settlements in Palestine and divest from those holdings” — an apparent nod to the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The BDS campaign seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination. “Harvard University continues to attempt to silence the voices of those who refuse to watch idly by as crimes against humanity are committed against the Palestinian people,” said the letter containing the demands. “The university continually wants to ‘affirm their commitment to protecting all members of our community from harassment and marginalization.’ However, they are currently attempting to fire a Black first year proctor, Elom, for standing on the side of justice.” The letter additionally chastised Gay for earlier this month condemning the popular anti-Israel chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a slogan that has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Now we will find out who is in charge at Harvard, the administration or the spoiled, little, terror-supporting, Jew-hating motherf***ers,

#harvard #harvard university #claudine gay #bds #harvard crimson #elom tettey-tamaklo

[eretzyisrael]

by Collin Anderson

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, the Harvard University graduate student who was filmed accosting an Israeli classmate at a campus protest, penned an essay last year glorifying a Palestinian terrorist who was imprisoned for her role in attempting to bomb a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967.

"When I started learning about Palestine, I was always struck by the women who featured prominently in the movement's work," Tettey-Tamaklo wrote in a March 2023 article published in the Institute for Palestine Studies. "However, one woman's story struck me and has stayed with me ever since: Fatima Bernawi."

Regarded as the first female Palestinian terrorist, Bernawi attempted to bomb the Zion Cinema in downtown Jerusalem in 1967 by leaving an explosive in her handbag. An American tourist spotted the bag and alerted an usher, foiling the plot. Bernawi was nonetheless sentenced to life in prison and said subsequently that her attempted terrorist attack was not a "failure" given that it "generated fear throughout the world."

"Every woman who carries a bag needs to be checked before she enters the supermarket, any place, cinemas and pharmacies," Bernawi said in a 2015 interview. "All my life I had dreamed about it," she said.

Tettey-Tamaklo's essay refers to the attack approvingly. He writes that Bernawi "nearly carried out an attack on an Israeli establishment frequented by Occupation Forces (IOF)" and subsequently made "history as the first woman to be arrested by the IOF."

He concludes that "a true appreciation and celebration of underrepresented histories of Palestinian women like Bernawi—among others—cannot be relegated to the dusty corridors of history."

At the time the essay was published, Tettey-Tamaklo, a second-year student at the Harvard Divinity School, served as a proctor, a supervisory role in which graduate students live among freshmen and support their "adjustment to Harvard."

Tettey-Tamaklo was removed from that role, however, after he was captured on video accosting a Jewish student at an October "die-in" protest held on Harvard's campus to assail Israel's retaliatory attacks on Hamas.

Tettey-Tamaklo and other protesters pushed, shoved, and surrounded the Jewish student, using keffiyehs to block their own faces and the Jewish student's view, according to footage first reported by the Washington Free Beacon. The protesters repeatedly shouted "SHAME!" as the Jewish student said "don't grab me" and "don't touch my neck."

Prominent Harvard Business School alumni cited the ordeal as proof that the Ivy League institution failed to protect its Jewish attendees. Weeks after the letter's publication, in November, Harvard "indefinitely relieved" Tettey-Tamaklo of his proctor duties.

Tettey-Tamaklo's allies on Harvard's campus responded by circulating a petition that demanded Harvard reinstate the Divinity School student. The Harvard Law Record published a December article arguing that Tettey-Tamaklo was a "peaceful protester" attempting to "de-escalate" a "minor confrontation" between the Jewish student and protest attendees.

It's unclear if Harvard was aware of Tettey-Tamaklo's essay when it tapped the divinity school student to serve as a freshman proctor. The school did not respond to a request for comment.

Notwithstanding Harvard's decision to strip Tettey-Tamaklo of his proctor rule, he remains in good standing with the school, according to a January lawsuit that accuses Harvard of failing to combat "outrageous antisemitic conduct."

#elom tettey-tamaklo #terrorism #fatima bernawi #harvard university

[fairuzfan]

Please consider spending time to learn more about Afro-Palestinian experiences and living under occupation while Black and Palestinian, along with Afro-Palestinian resistance efforts throughout the years. Here are some valuable articles and resources:

Articles:

In the heart of the Old City, generations of Afro-Palestinians persevere in the face of occupation by Mousa Qous

Putting the pieces together: Fragments of oral history in exile by Samah Fadil

‘Afro-Palestinians’ forge a unique identity in Israel by Isma'il Kushkush

The Africans of Jerusalem by Mousa Qous

The History Of Afro-Palestinians, Past And Present by Fayida Jailler

African-Palestinian community’s deep roots in liberation struggle by Electronic Intifada

Remembering Fatima Bernawi: Historic Palestinian fighter and liberated prisoner (1939-2022) on Samidoun

Fatima Barnawi, founder of Palestinian Women's Police and veteran prisoner, dies at 83 by Middle East Eye

On Fatima Bernawi, Women's Struggle, and Black-Palestinian Solidarity by Elom Tettey-Tamaklo

Afro Palestine: the African Diaspora in Palestine (not an article but a quick video summary of Afro-Palestinian history)

Note: highly recommend checking out Mousa Qous, the founder of the African Community Society, for his writings above all!

African Community Society of Jerusalem:

Their website— organization centered around the Afro-Palestinian community in Jerusalem.

General info about the group

ACS's instagram to learn more about Afro-Palestinian history.

Here is a write-up about the African Community Society, their impact within Palestinian society, and Afro-Palestinian history in Jerusalem specifically. Highly recommend taking the time to read this if you can.

Please take the time to watch this Documentary by Stephen Graham about former Israeli prisoner Ali Jiddah where he takes the viewer on a tour throughout Jerusalem and describes the unique struggles the Afro-Palestinian community face. He is quite a friendly guy and very funny:

#palestine #palestinian history #palestine history #palestina #stand with palestine #i'll probably add more links as i come across them #Youtube

[penflicks]

On white supremacy and Zionism: a reflection on Claudine Gay’s tenure as president of Harvard University

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/on-white-supremacy-and-zionism-a-reflection-on-claudine-gays-tenure-as-president-of-harvard-university/

President Gay failed to acknowledge that the safety of Jewish students is inextricably linked to the safety of Palestinian and other students. In repeatedly ignoring Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish voices, she made it clear that Harvard was unwilling to commit to ending all forms of racism — and that she would play an active role in upholding the university’s commitment to white supremacy. Furthermore, in failing to respond to meeting requests from anti-Zionist Jewish students, President Gay made it clear that she was not committed to protecting all Jewish students; her commitment was to protect Zionists.   

But Zionists demanded that she do more. It was not enough that she failed to respond to and protect pro-Palestinian students; she also needed to make actively suppressing pro-Palestinian voices a defining mark of her tenure. President Gay condemned the slogan “from the river to the sea” and oversaw the initiation of disciplinary action against student activists. For me, the most painful evidence of this has been the eviction of former first-year proctor Elom Tettey-Tamaklo after he peacefully confronted and de-escalated an attempt to compromise the safety of protesters at a die-in at the Harvard Business School. 

Let me be clear: President Gay was forced out not because she is antisemitic and/or anti-Zionist but because she is not Zionist enough. The Congressional hearing on December 5 was little more than political theater in which right-wing leaders created and seized an opportunity to undermine core tenets of liberal arts institutions and divert attention from the genocide in Gaza. The hearing was never going to be a meaningful intervention to address the real and harmful threat of antisemitism or a forum for President Gay to redeem herself in the eyes of right-wing provocateurs. Rather, she was accused of providing unsatisfying answers to questions about a course on settler colonialism in Palestine and made to state her belief in Israel’s right to exist. Furthermore, the country watched as President Gay — the lone Black woman on the panel — was interrupted and belittled more than the others in a routine display of misogynoir.

Her presidency makes clear that there will always be limits to representation at institutions deeply embedded in white supremacy. These appointments do not suddenly make us acceptable to racists, nor can these institutions offer us protection from themselves. 

The liberation of Black women is impossible without the liberation of Palestine. Black women deserve far better than to be victims of witch hunts and puppets of white supremacist projects, and the Palestinian people deserve unwavering, unequivocal, and explicit solidarity from every marginalized person who is given a powerful platform. We should mourn President Gay’s tenure because she was both a victim and an agent of white supremacy. We should be disappointed because we wanted both better for her and from her. 

Full article behind link

#free palestine #free gaza #free west bank #palestine #gaza #west bank #israel #israeli apartheid #israeli occupation #tel aviv #racisim

[mightyflamethrower]

Harvard Jew-Haters Finding Out the New Rulez Suck

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!”

[sbahour]

My faith in youth was renewed today by a visit from Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a native of Ghana and a past Teaching Assistant at the 2019 “I Know I Can” (IKIC) Summer Academies at the Ramallah Friends School, where I first met him.

After IKIC, he returned to Haverford College, graduated with a political science degree, and is now back in the region, working in Amman as an Ethics Intern at UNRWA HQ, about to head to Cambridge to start a Masters in Religion, Ethics, and Politics at the Harvard Divinity School. All the while, he is volunteering with Sabeel Elquds, engaged as a Research & Programs Intern with the African Studies Association of Africa, was a Co-Convener for Black Christians for Palestine, and attended a Conflict Management Training Program at the United States Institute for Peace.

He had a week off and decided to cross over to Palestine to reconnect and do some Sabeel work. He visited today to ask some very pointed questions about my career path and thoughts on what the solidarity community can do to engage in our struggle. His questions were clearly well thought out beforehand. He is already planning his next trip back to Palestine.

This is the version of youth I can be inspired by. BIG lesson here for our local graduates and those Palestinian diaspora graduates. Graduating and immediately seeking a public sector job is a death sentence. You can do better, you must do better. When you graduate abroad, you can come and continue your education here in Palestine, intern in Palestine, or volunteer in Palestine, the opportunities are endless. We need you all, every one of you, to engage at ground zero.

#Palestine #Israel #Ghana

[bllsbailey]

Karmic Comeuppance: Pro-Hamas Harvard Student Loses Job, Housing for Harassing Israeli Classmate

It's not often that we can report on these pages positive news from Ivy League campuses, but today is one of those rare days. The Harvard Crimson reported Friday that Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a graduate student at the Harvard Divinity School, was let go from his job as a freshman proctor after video surfaced of him harassing an Israeli classmate.

A divinity student. Let that sink in. 

The Crimson described the role of a proctor at Harvard:

Proctors are Harvard graduate students, instructors, or staff who oversee a group of freshmen. They are unpaid and receive compensation in the form of meal swipes and housing in a freshman dorm. According to the petition, Tettey-Tamaklo was asked to vacate Thayer on Friday.

They let this guy oversee freshman?

The video in question showed Tettery-Tamaklo joining with other pro-Hamas protesters at Harvard, who were forming a circle around an Israel student and refusing to let the student leave. Tettery-Tamaklo is seen shouting, "Shame!" directly into the Israeli's face, and using his body and a keffiyeh he was carrying to prevent the young student from getting away from the angry crowd.

After the disturbing video made its way around the internet, calls were made for Harvard to enforce its own rules for keeping Jewish students safe. A group of prominent Harvard graduates, including Mitt Romney, called on the school to "muster the courage to lead by re-establishing moral and respectful conduct on your campuses." The video showing Tettery-Tamaklo's extremist behavior was of particular concern, with the group writing:

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. Despite these serious concerns, University leadership shockingly has been paralyzed.

A look into Elon Tettery-Tamaklo's past shows his proclivity for antisemitic extremism has been brewing for some time. One report states that he took part in spring break trip to both Israel and the West Bank earlier in 2023, designed to "highlight the Palestinian narrative." Other students who were on the trip with him returned to their campuses and urged their fellow students "to become violently aware of the subjugation that terrorizes Palestinians and the ways in which they resist it.”

Taking up this call to arms, Tettery-Tamaklo set up a group at Harvard called "Graduate Students 4 Palestine," which seems to serve as a propaganda tool for Hamas. A quick look at their Instagram account shows they peddle extremist, antisemitic rhetoric. Their dangerous, ignoble goal is to make Jewish students feel unsafe.

In getting the boot from his position, Tettey-Tamaklo loses his job, his meal plan and his campus housing. It's a good start, but Harvard needs to show they are serious about protecting Jewish students by removing him from campus altogether.