A Palestinian-American businessman has resigned from a Harvard University council after a lawsuit was filed claiming he aided Hamas in developing the terror group’s infrastructure in Gaza.
Billionaire developer Bashar Masri is accused of “aiding and abetting” Hamas, according to Fox News.
“Following conversations with the Kennedy School of Government, Bashar Masri has stepped down from his role on the Dean’s Council, while he seeks the dismissal of the false allegations made against him,” Masri’s office said in a statement.
“Neither he nor any businesses associated with him have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy,” the statement said. “Bashar Masri has been involved in development and humanitarian work for decades. His continued efforts to promote regional peace and stability have been widely recognized by the United States and all concerns parties in the region. He unequivocally opposes violence of any kind.”
The lawsuit said, Masri and his companies and partners were part of a “grand deception.”
“They owned and operated flagship properties in Gaza that they knowingly and deliberately integrated into Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure and that were crucial elements in Hamas’s attack plan on October 7,” the lawsuit said.
“Defendants’ conduct also foreseeably contributed to further military and civilian deaths in the months that followed,” the lawsuit claimed.
Palestinian-American billionaire quits Harvard
post after lawsuit claims he helped build Hamas
terror tunnels, rocket launch sites!!!Looks like Harvard has become Hamas-Central &
networks with other liberal universities possibly. 🤔Basar Masri has been sued by 200 members of… pic.twitter.com/JydJZCKcTT
— Jessie2 (@Jessies_Too) April 11, 2025
Do you think Masri is sympathetic towards Hamas?
The suit claimed Masri “grew up believing that violence against Jews and Israel was justified and came to play a role in the First Intifada, the coordinated campaign of violence launched by various Palestinian factions, including Hamas, against Israel that began in 1987 and continued until 1993 when the Oslo Accords were signed.”
The suit claimed that while attracting investment in the U.S. for Gaza projects, “he and the companies he controls were actively conspiring with Hamas both to build infrastructure used on October 7, 2023, and to provide cover for Hamas’s true violent aims.”
The lawsuit said, Basri and his companies “developed and operated prime properties in Gaza for outwardly legitimate purposes.”
“But in reality, they were also used to construct and conceal Hamas’s attack tunnels, store and launch its rockets at Israel, host Hamas leadership and foot soldiers, train Hamas naval commandos — and even to produce electricity for Hamas’s attack tunnel infrastructure,” the lawsuit claimed.
The suit said the Gaza Industrial Estate developed by Masri “was a showcase for legitimate businesses like Coca-Cola and a variety of light manufacturing companies.”
“But beneath 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 lawsuit said.
“Hamas also used the GIE to probe the border fence and test the IDF’s response times and countermeasures in the lead up to the October 7 Attack,” the lawsuit said.
The suit alleged that “Hamas even installed an anti-tank battery in one of the GIE’s water towers facing the border.”
The lawsuit said two hotels in Gaza built by Basri had direct access from rooms to subsurface Hamas tunnels.
The lawsuit was brought by family members of Itay Chen, the parents of dead hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, and Israeli philanthropist Eyal Waldman, whose daughter was killed on Oct. 7, according to the New York Post.
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