By Rami Ayyub
JERUSALEM, May 8 (Reuters) – A prominent Palestinian-American developer asked a U.S. judge on Friday to throw out a lawsuit accusing him of supporting Hamas through his Gaza projects, arguing it equates participating in Gaza’s economy with terrorism.
Bashar Masri, who built luxury hotels in Gaza and the Palestinians’ first planned city in the West Bank, was sued last year by U.S. families of victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks who alleged his Gaza properties concealed tunnels the militant group used to stage its assault.
Before Israel’s war in Gaza, Hamas built a labyrinth tunnel network that stretched across nearly all of Gaza. Businesses often grappled with whether and how to invest in a territory ruled by a group deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. and whose tacit approval was needed for large development projects.
The civil complaint, filed on behalf of around 200 American plaintiffs, alleges that Masri knew about Hamas tunnels under his two seaside hotels, which it says the group accessed from guest rooms. It also says the group powered underground fortifications with electricity from solar panels in an industrial zone he operated.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages from Masri and four of his companies under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which lets American victims of terrorism sue for damages in U.S. courts.
Filing a motion to dismiss the complaint in federal court in Miami, Masri’s lawyers said he bore no blame for the October 2023 attacks on Israel, describing them as “barbaric acts of terrorism”.
The defendants “unequivocally condemn Hamas’ violence and the suffering it inflicted upon innocent civilians”, they wrote, adding that the plaintiffs had failed to show Masri knew his conduct could aid Hamas in staging attacks.
The complaint amounts to “speculation” that Masri and his companies “engaged in international terrorism merely by participating in economic development projects” in Gaza, Masri’s lawyers wrote.
Masri declined to provide further comment. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately provide comment.
PLAINTIFFS INCLUDE MASRI’S EX-BUSINESS PARTNER WHOSE DAUGHTER WAS KILLED
Masri has had a high profile as a developer, and received U.S. aid grants. His flagship project is Rawabi, a $1.4 billion development in the occupied West Bank that is the first master-planned city built by and for Palestinians.
In Gaza, his companies’ major projects included two Mediterranean-front luxury resorts – the Ayan Hotel and the Blue Beach Resort – and the Gaza Industrial Estate located on the border with Israel. All suffered major damage during the war, during which Israeli bombardment reduced much of Gaza to ruins.
The plaintiffs include Israeli tech mogul Eyal Waldman, a peace activist and former business partner of Masri whose youngest daughter was among those killed by militants at the Nova outdoor dance festival on October 7.
One of Waldman’s firms once employed more than 100 Palestinian engineers in Rawabi and in Gaza through an IT company backed by Masri, an arrangement both men held up as an example of how economic cooperation could foster peace.
Waldman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Rami AyyubEditing by Peter Graff)
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