Black Harvard proctor removed over protest altercation. I'm going to first go to the video and give you the background. Here it is. >> Speaker 2: Exit. [00:00:15] Exit. Exit. Show him the exit. Exit. >> Speaker 2: Exit. >> Speaker 2: Exit. >> Speaker 3: Exit behind you. Turn around. >> Speaker 2: Exit. >> Speaker 3: Exit. >> Speaker 2: Not interested. >> Speaker 3: Okay, cool. >> Speaker 2: We'll just stay here. [00:00:31] Exit. Exit. Exit. Exit. Exit. >> Speaker 1: Don't grab [00:00:51] me. >> Speaker 3: Don't touch my neck. >> Speaker 2: Exit. Exit. >> Speaker 3: Behind you. >> Speaker 1: Don't grab me. >> No ne is grabbing you. [00:01:09] >> Speaker 1: Put up the picture full mass. I will explain to you what has occurred in Massachusetts. Elam Teddy Tamaklo, a Harvard College proctor, has been indefinitely relieved of his duties following his involvement in a confrontation at [00:01:24] a pro Palestine protest, according to a petition that began circulating Friday evening with a student that has direct knowledge of the situation. The petition cited, quote, student discomfort as the reason for [00:01:41] the removal, but alleged that none of Elam's first year students expressed having any actual discomfort. So what are proctors? Proctors are basically Harvard graduate students, [00:01:58] instructors of staff that oversee a group of freshmen. They are unpaid and receive compensation in the form of meal swipes and housing in a freshman dorm. [00:02:13] According to the petition, the proctor was told to vacate Friday, background on a confrontation. It's this, the viral video of the protest depicts a confrontation between a man who is identified as an Israeli student and other outlets and protest organizers. [00:02:32] When the student began filming, demonstrators faces the proctor, who is, in a way there to protect students. The proctor and other protest safety marshals directed him away and blocked his camera with their security vest, traditional Palestinian scarves, etc. [00:02:52] The student could be heard saying don't touch me as he came into physical contact with the protesters. So a Harvard president, Rabbi Zarchi, called for the removal of the proctor due to his involvement in [00:03:08] the October 18 pro Palestine Diane. This was at Harvard Business School and on IG claiming that he had fielded complaints from students. So you have one narrative that said no student said they were uncomfortable, [00:03:26] another person saying, well, I got complaints from the students. In an email announcement to the affiliates Wednesday afternoon, Zarchi also shared a screenshot he identified as the proctor's IG story, which included the caption. Quote, the beast of Zionism shall be slain, Palestine shall live, [00:03:41] her children shall return, from the river to the sea Palestine will be free. Needless to say, students are frightened of him. Their parents call me regularly to say how they can't sleep at night as [00:03:59] they worry for the safety of their children, he wrote in the email. So Harvard President Claudine Gay announced the launch of an anti Semitism advisory board or group at the end of last month. In a Thursday afternoon email statement, Gay condemned the pro [00:04:19] Palestine phrase from the river to the sea, which she wrote to a great many of people imply the eradication of Jews from Israel and engender both pain and fears within the Jewish community. This statement goes like this. [00:04:37] I have heard from many community members about the incident on the Harvard Business School campus on October 18. They wrote, Consistent with our standard practice, once law enforcement's inquiry is complete, the university will address the incident through the student disciplinary procedure [00:04:53] to determine if university policies or codes of conduct have been violated. If so, take appropriate action. Action has already been taken. So let's be clear about this, all right? There's an intentional manipulation of narrative. [00:05:12] It's happening from politicians, it's happening from spin masters. We should all universally agree that murder, killing of innocent people, well, that is wrong. That is immoral. That should be universally condemned, period. [00:05:32] Why do we have to keep making this distinction? Palestinians, the Palestinian authority, the government, they're not at war. Palestinian citizens are not at war with Israel, Hamas is. [00:05:48] And if you believe the narrative that Netanyahu has no choice but to kill Palestinians in order to find Hamas, obviously you know if Hamas was hiding in Israel, [00:06:08] he would not kill Israelis to get to Hamas. He would actually care about collateral damage called human bodies. There would be precision through intelligence gathering and [00:06:23] specified operations to limit or eliminate the likelihood of innocent death. Here's the other part. There are lawmakers in America saying, kill all Palestinians. [00:06:41] The irony of how polarized this issue has become, how America has basically said no to innocent civilians being killed, having the opportunity to actually get water, [00:06:58] America said no to that. The Palestinian population on the Gaza Strip, look at it. Look it up. What's the age? Well, over 40% are 14 and under. Those are children, ladies and gentlemen. [00:07:14] So, yes, you condemn killing in all forms, and you condemn killing of innocent individual in all forms. But don't fall for the framework of the polarized narrative they have handed you. The first casualty of war is always the truth. [00:07:33] All right, Yasmin, thoughts? >> Speaker 4: Yeah, we like to think of our higher education institutions, that they hold themselves to a higher standard than most other institutions in this country. But we know that that isn't actually the case. These are legacy institutions that have been around for as long or [00:07:50] even longer than this country has been around. I always have respect and deference for educators and also for the people who work in education. But the institutions themselves can be incredibly problematic. We're seeing it all over the country, from grade school levels all the way up to the highest level of the Ivy League. [00:08:09] And it's incredibly disheartening, and that's putting it lightly to see what's happening in this country as a result of what's happening in Gaza. It's made a lot of Americans distrustful of an already untrustworthy government, and it's shown a lot of Americans that our freedom of speech is a protected freedom [00:08:25] to a certain extent. If intellectual, emphatic discussion and peaceful demonstrations can't happen on a university campus, these are places that are supposed to champion higher thought, then we're in a really scary position as a country. And that's not even to say anything about what's actually happening in Gaza. [00:08:43] It's also heartbreaking. We already feel incredibly helpless. Millions of people have come out in protests around the world against what's happening in Gaza to the Palestinians, and then we see things like this, and it doesn't help. None of it helps. >> Speaker 1: Very well said. [00:08:59] Very well said.