We are Two Law Students who were Present at the HBS “Die-In.” Ibrahim Bharmal was protecting peaceful student protestors from harassment.
By Irene Ameena and Aashna Avachat
On October 18, 2023, hundreds of Harvard students marched to Harvard Business School and staged a “die-in” to call for an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza following the attack on the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital. Die-ins have a long tradition among activists across causes, from animal rights and traffic violence to Black Lives Matter and the climate crisis.
The protest was organized by Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and Graduate Students 4 Palestine. During the march and subsequent “die-in,” students led chants, held up posters, and ultimately laid on the ground outside Klarman Hall at the Harvard Business School, where former President Obama had been scheduled to speak. The protestors included students and other Harvard affiliates, including Jewish protestors. We are two of the many students who were present at the protest, writing to share our experience..
During the die-in, we were laying on the ground along with dozens of our peers. There were students from various Harvard schools, and we all laid fairly close together. One person’s feet were often were right by another person’s head. As we were sprawled on the ground, one of the organizers read out a statement from a surgeon at Al-Ahli Hospital describing the carnage he witnessed in the aftermath of indiscriminate bombing.
During this reading, a man neither of us knew began walking over people. He was weaving through the crowd, holding his phone out and taking close-up photos/videos (presumably to dox students) of protesters, sometimes nearly two inches from people’s faces.
In order to protect student protesters, a small group of “Safety Marshals,” or students requested by the protest organizers to de-escalate any potentially dangerous situations, began directing the counterprotester away from students lying on the ground. On the ground, we were vulnerable and unprotected; many of us with our eyes closed as we grieved. Many students were unmasked, and our faces were visible. As the man stepped over us, we were afraid he might step on us. To prevent any such escalation, safety marshals held up keffiyehs to block the man’s camera and stood in between him and the protesters on the ground. Some of the protesters who noticed the man walking over us sat up and said, “Shame!” The man with the camera tried to push through them. At no point did any of the safety marshals or protest organizers ever touch him. Instead, by using non-violent de-escalation methods, they were able to guide the man away from our bodies and to a safe distance from protesters.
One of these safety marshals was Ibrahim Bharmal. Ibrahim Bharmal is a student at Harvard Law School, an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and a member of multiple advocacy efforts on campus, including those supporting human rights and religious freedom both here and abroad. Prior to attending Harvard Law, Ibrahim worked with the Handa Center for Human Rights Education and Action at Stanford University and won the Sterling Award for his service on campus as an undergraduate student. The Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice said of his character:
He has also worked with the American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at Stanford, including serving as global engagement chair. He has been active within Markaz, the Muslim Student Resource Center and has been a voice of honesty and compassion around issues within the Muslim community. Off campus, he tutored at Ravenswood Reads in East Palo Alto, volunteered in refugee shelters in Berlin and Greece and worked for the Council on American Islamic Relations.
One of his nominators wrote, “There is a common thread to Ibrahim’s leadership. Ibrahim regularly brings his whole self to his life and work whether in the classroom, community service or leading his class. It is an integrated, thoughtful and humble self, and has continued on throughout his Stanford tenure. Ibrahim’s involvements cross multiple student communities. Serving as a class leader, he worked tirelessly to create a strong sense of affinity for his graduating class. As a young scholar and supporter of social justice, Ibrahim also has a strong interest in Muslim affairs and refugee studies.”
Since coming to Harvard Law School, Ibrahim continued this work of service. He is a member of Harvard Defenders, which provides pro bono public defense services to indigent people in the greater Boston area. He serves as a mentor to 1L students and organizes an annual talk on the sociopolitical dynamics underpinning Iqbal v Ashcroft, a case that is taught in all 1L Civil Procedure classes. This year, Ibrahim was also recognized as a 2023 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Pro Bono Honor Roll recipient for the many hours he devotes to volunteer work.
In the weeks leading up to the protest, both of us (and much of the Harvard Law community) watched our classmates get harassed and doxxed for being associated with pro-Palestine advocacy. Students who were targeted were almost all brown, Black, and Muslim students. A DC-based company called Accuracy in Media collected photographs of students and displayed them on the side of a truck that circled campus and even went to students’ parents houses. These students’ names were published online and they were falsely labeled antisemites. Consequently, several of our friends had been receiving death and rape threats in their emails, on their parents’ work phone numbers, and across social media. In light of this recent hostility, a counter-protestor weaving through the crowd to film students was, we both felt, a clear threat to student safety.
Importantly, Harvard guidelines also restrict photography and recording on Harvard’s campus. According to these rules, “any individual or organization wanting to engage in photography or filming on Harvard property for broadcast [or] public dissemination” must secure advance permission.
After the “die-in” on October 18, a far-right tabloid blasted a short video of the safety marshals and suggested that two of the safety marshals–Ibrahim as well as Elom Tettey-Tamaklo–were aggressors toward the man filming us. We were horrified at the racist smear campaign that followed this article.
Despite being edited and out of context, the video did not at ANY point show Ibrahim removing his hands from his keffiyeh or touching the man filming us. This 5-second clip led to articles and tweets claiming that Ibrahim “assaulted” the counterprotester, completely distorting the reality of the event. Not once did Ibrahim touch the counterprotester, even in the video Canary Mission (a site that is used to dox primarily Black and brown Pro-Palestine advocates) and other conservative outlets shared as “proof.”
Still, the video and tweets were seen by millions of X users, and outlets began labeling Ibrahim a “jihadist” and spreading other Islamophobic, racist rhetoric about him. In the aftermath of the post, Ibrahim received death threats and was accosted on campus by other students. This Islamaphobic vitriol both online and in person was not met with any condemnation by Harvard faculty or administration. Instead, we were disappointed to see Harvard President Claudine Gay only vaguely reference the hate campaigns and harassment against Ibrahim and other safety marshals. The headlines became people’s perception of reality, despite the video evidence and testimonies to the contrary. For Harvard students, the level of media literacy has been stunningly abysmal, especially since anyone can watch even the two-minute, edited video and see for themselves the truth.
We were present at the protest. We saw Ibrahim stand before the counterprotester to protect us. We saw him keep his hands on his keffiyeh at all times. But even if you don’t believe us, the video shared by alt-right outlets itself will show you the same thing. To see Ibrahim being accused of hate against Jewish students is shocking; when he tried to escort the counter protester out, he was protecting Jewish and non-Jewish students alike as they engaged in their right to peaceful protest.
Aashna: I first met Ibrahim when he hosted an additional review session going over the Iqbal case. It was the first space I and my peers had in a law classroom to discuss the case beyond its procedural consequences (our professor had said something along the lines of, “yes, this case is problematic, but we’re going to focus on the precedent”). It was remarkable that Ibrahim had gone out of his way to create a space for law students to discuss not just the academic but also the social ramifications of a powerful “black letter” case. Beyond that, I continued to see Ibrahim around campus, where he answered questions about classes we should take, made himself available when people were in need, led social justice efforts, and was an overall kind-hearted, generous mentor at the law school.
Irene: I met Ibrahim at an event for Muslim students at the law school, where we bonded quickly. He was so easygoing and gentle in an environment that felt really daunting as a 1L coming to the northeast for the first time. I loved attending Iftars with him to break our fasts during Ramadan, and we bonded over how family-oriented we both were. Ibrahim is genuinely one of the most friendly people I’ve met–he gives everybody so much grace and is exceedingly patient and thoughtful. When it comes to caring for people, he never misses a beat–he thinks of everything.
It is disheartening that at a time when the number of Palestinians killed has surpassed that of the 1948 Nakba, we as students and advocates must address falsified, Islamophobic smear campaigns against our peers, rather than being able to focus on advocacy for the people in Gaza or even grieve. These alt-right campaigns are tools designed to stoke tensions and distract from the real issue of genocide, but we will not back down from advocating for peace and an end to killing. Voicing support for Palestine has grown more dangerous in the United States. Just this weekend, three Palestinian students in Vermont were shot at for wearing their keffiyehs. The rhetoric being used to describe Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices has been dehumanizing and is dangerous, to people’s lives and livelihoods. It must stop.
Despite the harassment and doxing he has faced, Ibrahim has continued to be a tireless ally and advocate against the thousands killed, displaced, and injured in Palestine. We are lucky to know him as a friend and lucky to have him in the Harvard community. The false racist harassment campaign against him is patently unsupported by the positive impact Ibrahim has had on every community he has been a part of, the testimonies of anyone participating in the die-in, and of course, from the video evidence on October 18, when Ibrahim Bharmal protected peaceful protesters. We condemn the smear campaign launched against him and call it for what it is: an Islamophobic, racist attempt to silence pro-Palestine advocacy.
