Harvard dean's council member resigns from post after lawsuit claims he 'aided and abetted' Hamas
A member of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Dean's Council has resigned from his position after he was sued last week by nearly 200 family members of Americans killed in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israeli concert-goers.
According to the lawsuit, Bashar Masri, a Palestinian American billionaire, is accused of "aiding and abetting" Hamas by helping the terror group build tunnels and rocket launch sites, as well as allowing top Hamas leaders to use his facilities at his properties in Gaza.
Masri resigned from his Harvard post in the wake of the allegations. The Kennedy School of Government confirmed his resignation in an email to Fox News Digital on Thursday.
"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 told Fox News Digital.
"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 paints a different picture.
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"Masri and the companies he controls—including Defendants Palestine Development & Investment Company ("PADICO"), Palestine Real Estate Investment Company ("PRICO"), and Palestinian Industrial Estate Development Company ("PIEDCO")—developed and operated prime properties in Gaza for outwardly legitimate purposes," the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on April 7, reads.
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"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," according to the suit. "Just prior to the October 7 Attack, Masri even installed an individual closely tied to Hamas as Chairman of PIEDCO."
That leader was identified in the lawsuit as Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip of Hamas in the Gaza Strip beginning in 2017, whom the lawsuit alleges used Masri's luxury seaside hotels "to host public and private Hamas events." The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) killed Sinwar last October.
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Masri is the man behind the $350 million Rawabi project, an effort to create the first modern industrial area in the West Bank. The lawsuit alleges that that project was mostly funded by a Qatari state-owned real estate investment firm.
"In 2018 he established and currently funds the graduate Rawabi Fellowship for Leaders from Palestine at the Harvard University Kennedy School. This fellowship program provides tuition, health insurance, and stipends for Palestinian graduate students at Harvard," the lawsuit says.
The Gaza Industrial Estate (GIE), is described as the "crown jewel" of Masri's developments, which the lawsuit says was financed through Masri's companies with money from USAID, the United Nations, the European Union, and more recently, the International Finance Company (IFC) in Washington.
"In developing the GIE, Masri and the other Defendants worked directly, openly, and knowingly with senior Hamas leaders, including, in the months before the October 7 Attack, the Hamas official in charge of the development of Hamas’s military-industrial base in Gaza," the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, while GIE appeared to be a totally legitimate company that manufactured products to meet the needs of ordinary people, it was very closely tied to Hamas terror, saying that "…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 claims that GIE was used to "probe the border fence and test the IDF’s response times and countermeasures in the lead up to the October 7 Attack," and that "Hamas even installed an anti-tank battery in one of the GIE’s water towers facing the border."
Masri's office called the complaint "baseless."
"He was shocked to learn through the media that a baseless complaint was filed today referring to false allegations against him and certain businesses he is associated with," his office told Fox News Digital. "Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy."