WASHINGTON — A billionaire Palestinian-American developer accused by Oct. 7 victims’ families of “aiding and abetting” Hamas has resigned from his position on the dean’s council at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, The Post can reveal, with the school acknowledging that the civil complaint “raises serious allegations.”
Bashar Masri stepped down from his post at the Ivy League university days after nearly 200 family members of victims of the deadly attack in Israel sued him in Washington, DC, federal court for allegedly aiding the construction of tunnels and rocket launchers at Gaza-based properties.
“Mr. Masri has resigned from the Dean’s Council. The lawsuit raises serious allegations that should be vetted and addressed through the legal process,” a spokesperson for the Kennedy School of Government said.
Masri, who had until recently been advising President Trump’s hostage envoy amid the ongoing war in Gaza, drew widespread acclaim for his work in developing the “futuristic” city of Rawabi in the West Bank and allegedly took millions of dollars in US government funding for other projects in Gaza.
But those properties included “terror infrastructure” later uncovered by the Israel Defense Forces during the more than year-long war, according to the complaint, including tunnels at an industrial park just yards from the Israel border and a base of operations with rocket sites at two ritzy hotels on the Mediterranean.
Reps for Masri did not immediately respond to a request for comment.