Harvard Evacuates Affiliates from Lebanon

A Harvard graduate student was injured and stranded in Lebanon this week after Israeli military forces shelled his taxi as he made his way to an evacuation point in Beirut.

Michael J. Esdaile, a Canadian second-year PhD student in Middle Eastern History, sustained minor injuries and was forced to miss the Harvard-sponsored International SOS (ISOS) shuttle out of the Lebanese capital, according to E. Roger Owen, the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Harvard decided last week to evacuate students and staff in Lebanon by busing them to Damascus, Syria, and then flying them to Cyprus.

The evacuations are not mandatory, though the University is recommending that its affiliates leave the country.

The recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon began last Wednesday when Hezbollah, the militant Shiite group that operates out of southern Lebanon, crossed into Israel and attacked an Israeli military patrol, killing eight soldiers and taking two as prisoners. Israel retaliated with heavy bombing, starting in the Hezbollah-controlled south and then shifting progressively north.

Esdaile is one of several University affiliates who remains in Beirut, including some who were not known to be in Lebanon when ISOS was first given a list of names by Harvard administrators.

“Esdaile was not evacuated by ISOS because he missed the meeting at the rendezvous point,” Owen, a professor of Middle Eastern history, said Thursday.

“He is fine, but his hand was hurt,” he added.

Despite the chaos in the region and Esdaile’s unsuccessful escape, Jorge I. Domínguez—Harvard’s vice provost for international affairs—said that “the evacuation of all individuals associated with Harvard, regardless of their citizenship, had been successful in general.”

Domínguez said that ISOS’ evacuation efforts have thus far been focused on College students because their contact information and whereabouts were most readily available to administrators. He added that Harvard has continued to supply ISOS with the names of other affiliates in the country as the information becomes available.