Harvard Police Investigating Protester Who Tore Down Chabad Poster at HOOP Rally

Updated March 4, 2025, at 9:29 p.m.

The Harvard University Police Department is investigating an incident involving a pro-Palestine protester who tore down a poster depicting the faces of Israeli hostages during a Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine protest on Monday.

The person who tore down the poster was wearing the Harvard University ID badge of Jonathan S. Tuttle, a cataloguer of published materials at the Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library, according to photos reviewed by The Crimson.

A video of the incident, which was circulated on X and Instagram, shows the protester ripping a poster portraying the Bibas children — two Israeli citizens taken hostage by militants during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks — down from a bulletin board inside Harvard Yard. Hamas returned the remains of the Bibas children to Israel in a February exchange.

“What is wrong with you?” an onlooker shouts in the video as the protester tries to remove the poster. “Stop it! Stop!”

Daily Wire reporter Kassy Akiva first alleged that the person who tore down the poster was wearing Tuttle’s badge, posting a blurred video of the incident to X.

Tuttle declined to comment on the matter.

Harvard University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that HUPD is investigating the video “as a bias-related incident” but did not confirm whether the person pictured is a University employee.

Harvard Chabad, which put up the posters on kiosks in Harvard Yard, posted video footage of the incident to their Instagram page, writing in a post that “a Harvard library employee tears down Harvard Chabad posters of the murdered Bibas family.”

“Although the employed violator seems to be very proud of his actions, new doxxing rules are threatening and preventing students from releasing the unblurred vision of this video,” they added.

Newton, the University spokesperson, wrote in a statement that Harvard is committed to being a place “where members of our Jewish community are embraced, respected and can thrive, and to combatting antisemitism and all forms of hate.”

“The University is aware of reports and a video showing someone tearing down posters of Israeli hostages displayed on campus,” he added. “The University condemns these acts of vandalism and hate in the strongest terms.”

In the video, the person who tore down the poster continued walking through the Yard, chanting “resistance is justified when people are occupied,” with the other protesters.

During the rally, the protesters walked from the Science Center Plaza to the John Harvard statue after counterprotesters blasted loud music to drown out the sound of pro-Palestine organizers who were speaking at the event.

The day after the HOOP rally, President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he would stop all federal funding for any college or university that “allows illegal protests.”

“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,” Trump wrote. “American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested.”

Though Trump did not say how the federal government would determine which protests are illegal, during his first months in office, he has promised to crack down on international students who participated in pro-Palestine activism.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump wrote on a fact sheet for a Jan. 29 executive order that seeks to combat anti-semitism and instructs universities to monitor international students who may have participated in crime or terrorism.

Unlike at other universities, pro-Palestine protests at Harvard have not resulted in mass arrests.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.