Palestinian-American billionaire quits Harvard post after lawsuit claims he helped build Hamas terror tunnels, rocket launch sites
WASHINGTON — A billionaire Palestinian-American developer accused by Oct. 7 victims’ families of “aiding and abetting” Hamas has resigned from his position on the dean’s council at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, The Post can reveal, with the school acknowledging the civil complaint “raises serious allegations.”
Bashar Masri stepped down from his post at the Ivy League university days after nearly 200 family members of victims of the deadly attack in Israel sued him in Washington, DC, federal court for allegedly aiding the construction of tunnels and rocket launchers at Gaza-based properties.
“Mr. Masri has resigned from the Dean’s Council. The lawsuit raises serious allegations that should be vetted and addressed through the legal process,” a spokesperson for the Kennedy School of Government said.
Masri, who had reportedly been advising President Trump’s hostage envoy about postwar plans for the Gaza Strip, drew widespread acclaim for his work in developing the “futuristic” city of Rawabi in the West Bank and allegedly took millions of dollars US government funding for other projects in Gaza.
But those properties included “terror infrastructure” later uncovered by the Israel Defense Forces, according to the complaint, including tunnels at an industrial park just yards from the Israel border and a base of operations with rocket sites at two ritzy hotels on the Mediterranean.
Masri, who has a home in DC, oversaw construction projects at the sites through a holding company, Massar International, and businesses like the Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO), which he chairs.
“Defendants provided services that legitimized Hamas and gave its operations under and within Defendants’ properties greater protection from Israeli and U.S. action,” read the civil suit brought by attorneys at Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP, Stein Mitchell Beato and Missner LLP and Osen LLC.
“All of this assistance was beneficial to Hamas in sustaining its iron-fisted rule in Gaza and in committing acts of international terrorism.”
Lead Willkie Farr lawyer Lee Wolosky formerly served in legal and national security roles under former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — as well as White House special counsel for the 46th president.
Gary Osen, another lead attorney in the case, has represented the families of hundreds of Holocaust victims — including Jews whose relatives had artworks seized by Nazis.
Masri’s office denounced the “baseless” suit in a Monday statement, adding: “Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy. Bashar Masri has been involved in development and humanitarian work for the past decades.”
The civil suit alleged that Masri violated the Anti-Terrorism Act in “knowingly” assisting Hamas before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 people — including 46 US citizens. Another 254 were taken hostage and held in Gaza.
PADICO board member Dr. Dalal Iriqat posted on X the same day as the Oct. 7 attack that the atrocities Hamas committed were part of a “normal human struggle.”
Masri had admitted a decade ago to helping with “planning” the First Intifada of 1987 against Israel — but since burnished a public image of being a peacemaker in the West Bank and Gaza, earning him grants and other investments from the United Nations, European Union, World Bank and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
In a 2019 interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Masri said Rawabi and his other developments were his contribution toward reaching peace — and a two-state solution — between the Palestinians and Israelis.
“If we can build a city — a futuristic city, a secular city, a democratic city — then we can build a state,” he told interviewer Bill Whitaker.
Some of those grants and investments went toward solar panel projects at the Gaza Industrial Estate (GIE), the manufacturing facility near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and the Blue Beach Resort, according to the lawsuit.
“[B]eneath the surface, Masri and the companies he controls worked with Hamas to construct and conceal an elaborate subterranean attack tunnel network which Hamas used to burrow under the border into Israel, to attack nearby Israeli communities, and to ambush Israeli military personnel,” the suit stated.
“Hamas even installed an anti-tank battery in one of the GIE’s water towers facing the border.”
Another property, the Al Mashtal Hotel — now called the Ayan Hotel — was also used as a training ground for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades — and, along with the Blue Beach, had shafts on its premises that descended directly from guest rooms into Hamas tunnels, according to the civil complaint.
Former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in 2024 by the IDF, “regularly” visited both hotels and his terror group used them as a “command center” for operations and launching rockets into Israel, the complaint noted.
Photos shared in the complaint also show Masri signing a May 2022 joint venture agreement for GIE with Hamas’ Deputy Minister of Economy Abdel Fattah Zrai, who was killed by the IDF last year, and University of Gaza engineering professor Dr. Muhamad Ziyara, who reportedly advised Hamas on the construction of its terror tunnels.
GIE, which helps manufacture pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, furniture textiles and even Coca-Cola products, got $10 million from the World Bank and a legal framework from USAID to begin construction in 1997, according to the civil complaint.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) later pitched in more “green energy” funding after GIE was damaged by Israeli airstrikes following Hamas attacks in May 2021.
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) handed over $6.93 million in 2017 for other damages due to “war” or “civil disturbance” since the Hamas-Israel conflict that broke out three years before.
The UN Development Program and European Commission had greenlit some further funding to rebuild the industrial plant between 2016 and 2019.
Rawabi’s construction also benefited from the backing of a Qatari government owned real estate firm.
The lawsuit against Masri was brought by family members of Itay Chen and the parents of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin are all listed as plaintiffs, as are Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and Israeli philanthropist Eyal Waldman, whose daughter was killed at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7.
Reps for Masri did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
