Bashar Masri Resigns From HKS Dean’s Council After Suit Alleges He Aided Hamas

Bashar Masri, a Palestinian American billionaire, resigned from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Dean’s Council earlier this week, days after he was accused in a lawsuit of covertly building infrastructure for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack.

The complaint was filed on Monday in a Washington, D.C. federal court on behalf of more than 200 families of victims of the Oct. 7 attacks. It alleges that Masri’s companies — under the auspices of various real estate initiatives — were used by Hamas to conceal attacks, store and launch rockets against Israel, and produce electricity for its offensives.

An HKS spokesperson confirmed Masri’s resignation in a statement, writing that “the lawsuit raises serious allegations that should be vetted and addressed through the legal process.”

Masri had served on the Dean’s Council — a group of roughly 70 high-profile donors and business executives that directly advised HKS Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein — since 2014. Since 2018, Masri has also funded the Rawabi Fellowship, which pays for Palestinian students to attend HKS.

Masri did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon after his resignation was first reported by the New York Post. He also denied the lawsuit’s claims in a statement to the New York Times.

“Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy,” his office wrote in a statement to the Times.

The business executive, a U.S. citizen born in Palestine, has extensive ties to the Trump administration’s hostage negotiation efforts, frequently shuttling Trump special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler across the Middle East.

But in the lawsuit, lawyers for the families blamed Masri’s “grand deception” on his “carefully cultivated image as a peace-building businessman.”

“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 stated.

The plaintiffs did not allege Masri knew about the Oct. 7 attacks, but did suggest he was aware of Hamas’ military infrastructure on the properties and argued he was civilly liable for the result. They asked the court to determine damages in trial.

The lawsuit focuses on three of Masri’s developments: the Gaza Industrial Estate — a 480,000 square meter industrial park in northern Gaza that the plaintiffs claim was a cover for “an elaborate subterranean attack tunnel” — and two hotels from which Hamas officials allegedly hosted events and launched rockets into Israel.

Masri, the founder and CEO of Massar International, has also led the creation of Rawabi, the first planned city in the West Bank.

In January, Weinstein traveled to Rawabi for a meeting with HKS alumni, hoping to restore the school’s relationship with Palestine and increase recruitment from the area. The 90-minute meeting was held in Masri’s Massar offices, according to Marwan Durzi, a representative for Harvard Alumni in Palestine.

It is unclear how Masri’s resignation will impact the Rawabi Fellowship. The school currently enrolls only one Palestinian student.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.

— Staff writer Tanya J. Vidhun can be reached at tanya.vidhun@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @tanyavidhun.