A Palestinian-American billionaire resigns from his position at Harvard after a lawsuit alleging he aided Hamas

Palestinian-American billionaire Bashir Masri has resigned from the Harvard Kennedy School's deanship following serious allegations of support for Hamas.

The New York Post revealed that approximately 200 families of victims of the October 7 attack filed a lawsuit against al-Masri in federal court in Washington, D.C., accusing him of contributing to the construction of Hamas tunnels and rocket launchers in Gaza. A spokesperson for the Kennedy School said, "Mr. al-Masri has resigned from the dean's council. The lawsuit raises serious allegations that must be examined and addressed through due process."

Al-Masri was widely recognized for his work developing the "future" city of Rawabi in the West Bank and received millions of dollars in funding from the US government for other projects in Gaza. However, according to the lawsuit, those properties included "terrorist infrastructure" later exposed by the Israeli military, including tunnels in an industrial zone just meters from the Israeli border and operational bases at two luxury hotels on the Mediterranean.

Al-Masry oversaw construction projects at these sites through his holding company, Massar International, and companies such as the Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO), which he chairs.

The civil lawsuit, filed by attorneys from Wilkie Farr, Stein Mitchell & Ossen, states: "The defendant provided services that legitimized Hamas's existence and provided greater protection for its operations. All of this assistance contributed to Hamas's maintenance of power in the Gaza Strip and its commission of international terrorist acts."

Prominent attorneys in the case include Lee Wolosky, who held legal and national security positions in the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George Bush, and Bill Clinton, and Gary Osen, who has represented the families of hundreds of Holocaust victims.

For its part, Al-Masry's company denied the allegations in a statement, describing them as "false," stressing that he did not participate in any illegal activity or support violence.

The civil lawsuit accused Al-Masry of violating the anti-terrorism law by aiding Hamas prior to the October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, and captured 254 others. It also cited a post by Dr. Dalal Ariqat, a PADICO board member, on the X platform on the day of the attack, in which he described Hamas's actions as a "natural human struggle."

A decade ago, Masri admitted to helping "plan" the 1987 Intifada, but later cultivated his image as a peacemaker in the West Bank and Gaza, earning him funding from the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, and USAID. In a 2019 interview with "60 Minutes," he said that Rawabi represents his contribution to peace and an international solution.

However, the lawsuit alleged that grant funds were used for projects in locations that later became terrorist infrastructure, such as the Gaza Industrial Estate (GIE) near the settlement of Nahal Oz, where underground attack tunnels were built and an anti-tank battery was installed in a water tower. The Al-Mashtal (now Ayan) and Blue Beach hotels were also accused of training members of the Qassam Brigades, and Yahya Sinwar regularly visited the hotels as a base of operations.

Photos in the lawsuit show Al-Masry signing a joint venture agreement for GIE in 2022 with Hamas officials, including Assistant Minister of Economy Abdel Fattah Zureiq (later killed) and an engineering professor at Gaza University who advised Hamas on tunnel construction. GIE has received funding from the World Bank ($10 million) and USAID since 1997, and subsequently received additional support following damage from the 2021 airstrikes, including $6.93 million from Mega (2017) to compensate for war damage.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the families of victims Itay Chen and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, as well as Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yitzhak Leiter, and businessman Eyal Waldman, whose daughter was killed during the Nova music festival.