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Lawyers representing the family members of nearly 200 Oct. 7 massacre victims believe that a former Harvard University adviser accused of aiding Hamas ahead of the attack is hiding in Palestinian territories to avoid a court summons.
The family members sued Bashar Masri, a Palestinian-American businessman, in April, calling his Gaza properties “crucial elements in Hamas’s attack plan.” They said the terror group used them to store and launch rockets at Israel, probe the border fence, host Hamas leadership and foot soldiers, train Hamas naval commandos, and construct and conceal attack tunnels. The suit also alleges that Masri appointed “an individual closely tied to Hamas” to chair one of his Palestinian real estate companies just before Oct. 7.
“Masri is likely resident in the Palestinian Territories, but without any physical address known to Plaintiffs,” lawyers wrote in a Friday court filing. They pointed to his frequent travel to Israel and interviews he’s given in the Jewish state.
“If there were any real suspicions against me, my friend, I’d at least have been interrogated,” Masri told Yediot Ahronot, according to a translation by the plaintiffs filed on June 25. “If there were proof, I wouldn’t be sitting in Tel Aviv now chatting with you.”
Since he’s proven elusive, the lawyers proposed publishing the complaint and summons in Yediot Ahronot, an Israeli publication he clearly reads. They also requested using other “alternative means” such as messaging his verified X, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.
And given that he’s provided “multiple interviews commenting publicly” on the lawsuit’s allegations, Masri is aware of the complaint, the lawyers argued in Friday’s brief.
Additional court filings in recent weeks detail the lawyers’ failed attempts to reach Masri. In an affidavit filed on June 25, a servicer said they went to Masri’s Washington, D.C., residence, but a woman who answered over an intercom refused to accept the documents. When the servicer tried again roughly a week later, the same woman again answered on the intercom and identified herself as Jane Masri. She said she had divorced Bashar Masri and that he no longer lived there and claimed she was answering the call remotely from abroad.
In an April statement, the Palestinian’s office called the allegations “false” and claimed that he “unequivocally opposes violence of any kind.”
But in the months leading up to the Oct. 7 attack, Masri worked with senior Hamas officials, including one who developed the terror group’s Gaza military-industrial base, the lawsuit alleges. Other Hamas leaders, including the Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, “regularly used [Masri’s] hotels to host public and private Hamas events.”
Masri’s Al Mashtal Hotel “adorned with large U.N. and EU signage on its roof, hosted a significant network of Hamas attack tunnels used to launch rockets into Israel and served as a command center for Hamas’s leaders during its conflict with Israel” in 2014, according to the suit.
In his role on the Harvard council, Masri was part of “a group of 70 high-profile donors and business executives that directly advised Harvard Kennedy School dean Jeremy M. Weinstein,” according to the Harvard Crimson. Masri also bankrolls the “Rawabi Fellowship for Current and Emerging Leaders from Palestine,” which provides tuition, health insurance, and stipends for Palestinian students attending Harvard Kennedy School.
Update, 11:17 a.m.: This story has been updated to clarify Masri’s role with the Harvard Kennedy School.
