A member of the Harvard College Kennedy College of Authorities Dean’s Council has resigned from his place after he was sued final week by almost 200 members of the family of People killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror assault on Israeli concert-goers.
In response to the lawsuit, Bashar Masri, a Palestinian American billionaire, is accused of “aiding and abetting” Hamas by serving to the phobia group construct tunnels and rocket launch websites, in addition to permitting prime Hamas leaders to make use of his amenities at his properties in Gaza.
Masri resigned from his Harvard submit within the wake of the allegations. The Kennedy College of Authorities confirmed his resignation in an electronic mail to Fox Information Digital on Thursday.
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Harvard school and workers maintain indicators from inside Harvard Yard throughout a press convention by school supporters of the Harvard Out of Palestine coalition outdoors Harvard Yard. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Pictures)
“Following conversations with the Kennedy College of Authorities, Bashar Masri has stepped down from his position on the Dean’s Council, whereas he seeks the dismissal of the false allegations made towards him,” Masri’s workplace instructed Fox Information Digital.
“Neither he nor any companies related to him have ever engaged in illegal exercise or supplied assist for violence and militancy,” the assertion stated. “Bashar Masri has been concerned in growth and humanitarian work for many years. His continued efforts to advertise regional peace and stability have been widely known by the USA and all considerations events within the area. He unequivocally opposes violence of any form.”
The lawsuit paints a special image.
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Bashar al-Masri, chairman of Palestine Improvement and Funding Firm Ltd., speaks through the launch ceremony of a big photo voltaic vitality undertaking in japanese Gaza Metropolis on March 10, 2021. (Xinhua/Rizek Abdeljawad by way of Getty Pictures)
“Masri and the businesses he controls—together with Defendants Palestine Improvement & Funding Firm (“PADICO”), Palestine Actual Property Funding Firm (“PRICO”), and Palestinian Industrial Property Improvement Firm (“PIEDCO”)—developed and operated prime properties in Gaza for outwardly reputable functions,” the lawsuit, filed in the USA District Court docket for the District of Columbia on April 7, reads.
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“However in actuality, they have been additionally used to assemble and conceal Hamas’s assault tunnels, retailer and launch its rockets at Israel, host Hamas management and foot troopers, practice Hamas naval commandos—and even to provide electrical energy for Hamas’s assault tunnel infrastructure,” in keeping with the swimsuit. “Simply previous to the October 7 Assault, Masri even put in a person carefully tied to Hamas as Chairman of PIEDCO.”
That chief was recognized within the lawsuit as Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas within the Gaza Strip of Hamas within the Gaza Strip starting in 2017, whom the lawsuit alleges used Masri’s luxurious seaside motels “to host private and non-private Hamas occasions.” The Israeli Protection Pressure (IDF) killed Sinwar final October.
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Palestinian businessman Bashar Masri stands amongst attendees through the occasion in Qasr ar Rawabi, Palestine, on April 5, 2025. (Mohammad Nazal/Center East Pictures/AFP by way of Getty)
Masri is the person behind the $350 million Rawabi undertaking, an effort to create the primary fashionable industrial space within the West Financial institution. The lawsuit alleges that that undertaking was principally funded by a Qatari state-owned actual property funding agency.
“In 2018 he established and presently funds the graduate Rawabi Fellowship for Leaders from Palestine on the Harvard College Kennedy College. This fellowship program offers tuition, medical insurance, and stipends for Palestinian graduate college students at Harvard,” the lawsuit says.
The Gaza Industrial Property (GIE), is described because the “crown jewel” of Masri’s developments, which the lawsuit says was financed via Masri’s firms with cash from USAID, the United Nations, the European Union, and extra lately, the Worldwide Finance Firm (IFC) in Washington.
“In growing the GIE, Masri and the opposite Defendants labored straight, overtly, and knowingly with senior Hamas leaders, together with, within the months earlier than the October 7 Assault, the Hamas official accountable for the event of Hamas’s military-industrial base in Gaza,” the lawsuit says.
A view of the encampment in Harvard yard. The “Liberated Zone” had a number of indicators decrying genocide and calling for divestment from Israel. (Nikolas Lanum/Fox Information Digital)
In response to the lawsuit, whereas GIE gave the impression to be a very reputable firm that manufactured merchandise to fulfill the wants of strange folks, it was very carefully tied to Hamas terror, saying that “…Masri and the businesses he controls labored with Hamas to assemble and conceal an elaborate subterranean assault tunnel community which Hamas used to burrow underneath the border into Israel, to assault close by Israeli communities, and to ambush Israeli navy personnel.”
The swimsuit claims that GIE was used to “probe the border fence and check the IDF’s response occasions and countermeasures within the lead as much as the October 7 Assault,” and that “Hamas even put in an anti-tank battery in one of many GIE’s water towers dealing with the border.”
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Masri’s workplace referred to as the criticism “baseless.”
“He was shocked to be taught via the media {that a} baseless criticism was filed at the moment referring to false allegations towards him and sure companies he’s related to,” his workplace instructed Fox Information Digital. “Neither he nor these entities have ever engaged in illegal exercise or supplied assist for violence and militancy.”
Peter D’Abrosca joined Fox Information Digital in 2025 after 4 years as a politics reporter at The Tennessee Star.
He grew up in Rhode Island and is a graduate of Elon College.
Observe Peter on X at @pmd_reports. Ship story tricks to peter.dabrosca@fox.com.
