April 10: Did Bashar Masri Build Hamas' Military Infrastructure?

Former CISA director under investigation; Inflation down; Hamas commander eliminated

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The Big Story

Families of the victims of the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, filed a lawsuit this week against prominent Palestinian American businessman Bashar Masri. The suit, which names Masri’s businesses—Palestine Development & Investment Company, Palestine Real Estate Investment Company, and Palestinian Industrial Estate Development Company—alleges that Masri was aware that his construction projects in Gaza, which include hotels and an industrial site, were being used to build Hamas a military infrastructure and tunnels that would later aid the terror group in the Oct. 7 attack.

Masri is the founder of Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city in the West Bank (per The Jerusalem Post), and has a vast array of investment holdings across the Middle East, including in Israel. Rawabi received $5 million from, predictably, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). His investment initiative, Siraj Fund, is valued at about $90 million. In 2018, Fortune magazine named Masri one of the world’s “50 Greatest Leaders.”

Filed by law firms Osen LLC, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner LLP, and Motley Rice LLC, the suit alleges that following the 2021 conflict—when 4,360 Palestinian rockets were fired toward Israel, and Israel responded by conducting about 1,500 aerial, land, and sea strikes on the Gaza Strip—Masri turned the Gaza Industrial Estate, which had been established in 1997 with support from USAID, into a hub for Hamas operations. The plaintiffs include the families of slain hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Itay Chen, and Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, whose son was killed in Gaza in November 2023, according to The Times of Israel.

The Scroll spoke to one of the lawyers representing the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, Gary Osen, to explain allegations. While it would be inaccurate to describe Masri as either a Hamas agent or even a direct financier of the terror group, Osen simply explains the direct allegations made in the suit; namely, that it’s almost undeniable that the Palestinian investor actively collaborated with Hamas to build underground tunnels used in the Oct. 7 attacks and meant to endanger Israeli Defense Forces soldiers: “The complaint will allege that these properties were designed specifically to build these underground tunnels,” said Osen. “And in that way, [Masri and his companies] contributed to both the October 7 attack, as well as the subsequent peril faced by IDF soldiers as a result of them.”

The lawsuit is a direct rebuke to the image that Masri has cultivated for himself as an anti-ideological pragmatist. Just last month The Jerusalem Post’s Ben Caspit called him a “pragmatic figure with no ties to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority despite youthful participation in anti-Israel protests.” The Post also reported on March 10 that Masri “quietly positioned” himself as a key player in the Trump administration’s postwar plan for Gaza. Masri serves as a close adviser to Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s hostage envoy, and with him has reportedly been involved in efforts to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

To be accused of being directly responsible for building the sites that would conceal Hamas’ most important military infrastructure—in particular, the infamous tunnels that have been used by Hamas throughout the war—all while occupying a role in the reconstruction of Gaza within a Trump administration is, as the kids say, not a great look.

While Osen couldn’t speak to Masri’s motivations, the suit casts doubt upon the idea that Masri is purely an opportunist or pragmatist solely motivated by financial imperative. His ability to present himself as such, however, and to speak the “Davos lingo” while fostering the trust of institutions such as the World Bank, a target of the case, has allowed him to operate in his alleged role in the Hamas network for a long time.

Masri’s office denied all the claims made by the lawsuit in a statement: “Neither [Masri] nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy. He unequivocally opposes violence of any kind,” it read. “He will seek the dismissal of these false allegations in court.”

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for the plaintiffs under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Osen acknowledges some difficulty in making this kind of civil case against Masri. In a civil suit of this nature, it’s not enough to say that Masri simply supported the activities of Hamas; Osen and his team must demonstrate that Masri’s developments were closely intertwined with Hamas’ terror operation, supported and proven by a “preponderance of the evidence.” Given how the group has used the tunnels, he’s optimistic about the case’s chances. ‘The only purpose for digging a tunnel under the border is to kidnap people, slaughter them,” he said. “So, from our standpoint, it’s not a close call, but obviously we don’t have the final word on it.”

When asked what Masri could present to the court as plausible defense, Osen cited three cases that the billionaire could make in his favor; they fall under what Osen calls “the three dog defense” or “I don’t know my dog, my dog doesn’t bite, or if my dog does bite, it didn’t bite you.” He explains:

First would be he could try to argue that he didn’t know. To paraphrase the old Claude Rains line from Casablanca, he could say he was “shocked to learn there was gambling going on in this location,” so to speak. That’s obviously not the greatest argument when you’ve been photographed at Hamas signing ceremonies, but it’s one he could make. Second argument would be that he and his companies were motivated by economic development and that he didn’t know his projects would be used for violent activities. Finally, they could argue that their connections to the United States were insufficient and that the court lacks jurisdiction over them, because although they solicited and obtained funding from the United States, it wasn’t sufficiently material to the overall unlawful activity.

As of this afternoon, The New York Post reported that Masri resigned from his position at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, with the school acknowledging that the suit “raises serious allegations.”

—Adam Lehrer

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The Rest

→Inflation climbed 2.4% in March, lower than the expected 2.5% and far lower than February’s 2.8% increase, according to The New York Times. Core Consumer Price Index inflation, on the other hand, fell below 3% for the first time since March 2021. Given the hysteria around President Trump’s now delayed tariffs, the downward trend is a welcome economic development. It’s credited to factors including declining costs for prescription drugs, airfare, used vehicles, and car insurance, as well as falling energy prices driven by stable gasoline costs in March. Come to think of it, my gas tank did seem to fill up rather cheaply yesterday.

→Following President Trump’s announcement of the reciprocal-tariffs delays and the third-best day for the stock market in modern history yesterday, stocks tumbled once again today after the White House clarified that the tariff on all Chinese goods would be 145%, not 125%, according to CNN. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, after rising nearly 3,000 points Wednesday, fell more than 1,500 points, or 3.7%, midday Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 4.5% and the NASDAQ Composite slid 5.2%. The S&P 500 is coming off its best day since 2008, and the NASDAQ on Wednesday posted its second-best daily gains in history. Dann Ryan, a managing partner at Sincerus Advisory, told MarketWatch that yesterday’s historic rally followed by today’s plunge reflects how desperate investors were for any good news.

→The IDF and Shin Bet launched an airstrike yesterday in Gaza City that claimed the life of Hamas’ Shejaiya Battalion commander Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil, according to The Jerusalem Post. The IDF said the commander had participated in the invasion of Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 and executed multiple attacks against the IDF in combat zones since the beginning of the war.

→Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Christian Zionist and a staunch supporter of the Jewish state, was confirmed by the Senate Wednesday to serve as the United States’ ambassador to Israel, according to Politico. Though Huckabee has never served in a diplomatic role prior to the confirmation, he has said in the past that his religious faith has led to him being one of Israel’s greatest allies among American politicians. In 2008, while encouraging Israeli settlements in the West Bank, he said, “There’s really no such thing as Palestinian.” He argued against a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas last June, when he said the latter was incapable of having an “honorable negotiation,” and he’s in favor of Trump’s “Mar-a-Gaza” proposal, according to Truthout. He was confirmed by a vote of 53-46, with Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman being the lone Democratic vote. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pleased by the news, posting on X, “This is a great day for the Israeli-American alliance!”

Not everyone is happy about the confirmation, of course; 65 progressive, faith, and human-rights groups sent a letter to Republican Sens. John Thune and James Risch and Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, and Chuck Schumer on March 24 urging them to block the nomination.

That letter and the groups that signed it can be found at the link below:

https://www.mpowerchange.org/rejecthuckabee

→Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin credited one man with his agency’s decision, announced Tuesday, to review new science on fluoride in drinking water. “If this is as important as it is to Secretary [Robert F.] Kennedy,” Zeldin said at a Monday event that Kennedy also attended in Utah, where fluoride in drinking water was recently banned across several municipalities, “then it is top of the list for the Environmental Protection Agency.” The statement comes after the Monday announcement that the Department of Health and Human Services would reconvene the Community Preventive Services Task Force “to study and make a new recommendation on fluoride,” according to CNN. Per Medical News Today, possible bad outcomes from fluoride consumption include dental fluorosis, bone fluorosis, reduced cognitive effect in children, and thyroid dysfunction.

→Tweet of the Day

→President Trump signed two executive orders yesterday launching investigations into both former director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Chris Krebs and former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, according to The Washington Post. Trump also revoked their security clearances. Taylor was the anonymous author of the infamous 2019 The New York Times op-ed “I Am Part of the Resistance inside the Trump Administration.” Krebs was fired by Trump in 2020 after publicly declaring the 2020 presidential election “the most secure election in history.” “We’ll find out whether or not it was a safe election,” said Trump in the Oval Office while signing the order to investigate Krebs. “And if it wasn’t, he’s got a big price to pay,” he added, referring to Krebs.

While critics of the president view the orders as unjust retaliation against his political enemies, supporters see it as a just investigation into election integrity and the corruption of the deep state. Taylor responded on X to Trump’s order against him:

→Meta Platforms Inc. whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams told senators in testimony yesterday that the technology company formerly known as Facebook worked “hand in glove” with the Chinese government to censor its platforms, according to CBS. Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook as early as 2011 as its director of global policy and stayed there until 2018. While there, she says she witnessed the company provide “custom-built censorship tools” for the Chinese Communist Party; allow user data, including that of American users, to be accessed by the CCP; and remove the account of a Chinese dissident. She also alleged Meta’s artificial intelligence model known as Llama was used to help DeepSeek, which is a Chinese AI company that shocked the world when its AI model was shown to be competitive with OpenAI’s ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost. A spokesperson for Meta said that Wynn-Williams’ claims were divorced from reality. The hearing was called last week by Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism.

→$382 million

That’s the total number of payments made by the Unemployment Insurance office that the Department of Government Efficiency has deemed “questionable.” DOGE says that it detected several irregularities, including large pay outs allegedly made to people more than 115 years old or between one and five years old and to people with birth dates that are in the future. The claims haven’t been substantiated by any independent media so far, but they’re interesting:

→Video of the Day

Here, we saw a lawyer representing the Capistrano Unified School District—which in 2024 punished a first grader for making a drawing that read “any live matters” (apparently not even being familiar with the slogan “All Lives Matter”) after being introduced to the phrase “Black Lives Matter” in a lesson about the civil rights movement—walking into it when suggesting that first graders should not be trading in the marketplace of ideas but instead should be teaching kids how to tie their shoes. “Well, then, maybe you don’t give a Black Lives Matter course to the first graders,” says the judge in response with detectable snark. “Maybe you just teach tying your shoes.”

On the facts of this case, the First Amendment prohibits the school from punishing the student for her drawing, according to Pacific Legal Foundation. The child’s parents filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In February 2024, shockingly, the court granted summary judgment to the school district, holding that the first grader’s First Amendment rights were not violated.

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