The Knesset’s Interior and Environmental Protection Committee held an emergency session on Monday amid concerns that individuals linked to terrorism may be involved in planning and construction initiatives in Jerusalem. The discussion followed appeals from families bereaved in the October 7 attacks, who are protesting a decision by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee to allocate land opposite the Old City walls to American-Palestinian billionaire Bashar al-Masri, who plans to build a new hotel in East Jerusalem.
Al-Masri is currently facing a lawsuit in the United States filed by the parents of victims of the October 7 massacre, alleging that he financed the terrorist organization Hamas. Last week, three bereaved fathers issued a joint statement opposing the district committee’s intention to approve the land allocation: Ruby Chen, the father of Sgt. Itay Chen, who was killed in battle and whose body was abducted to Gaza; businessman Eyal Waldman, the father of Danielle Waldman, who was murdered at the Nova music festival; and former minister Yizhar Shai, the father of Sgt. Yaron Uri Shai, who fell in battle at Kerem Shalom.
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American-Palestinian billionaire Bashar al-Masri plans to build a new hotel in East Jerusalem.
(Photo: Facebook)
A massive lawsuit is currently underway in the United States against al-Masri, filed by 200 families of October 7 victims, alleging that he funded Hamas and enabled the terror group to use facilities he owned in the Gaza Strip. The statement of claim includes extensive evidence of strategic Hamas tunnels beneath his properties in Gaza, as well as communications infrastructure, a naval commando headquarters and other strategic assets. Following the parents’ appeal, the Jerusalem municipality decided to remove the plan from the agenda.
The district committee was scheduled to address approval of the land allocation today. The plan itself was discussed by the local planning committee in September 2023, prior to the October 7 attacks, and the decision at the time was to recommend depositing the plan with the district committee. During that discussion, no information was presented linking the plan or its initiators to the businessman in question, nor does the plan list him as a stakeholder.
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Former science and technology minister Yizhar Shai and his son Sergeant Yaron Uri Shai who fell on October 7
(Photo: Hadar Yoavian)
The bereaved fathers further argued that “in the United States, the filing of the lawsuit led Harvard University to immediately remove him from its board of directors — but apparently in Israel that is not enough. While Israel draws red lines that Hamas terrorists are forbidden to cross in Gaza, Israel allows Bashar al-Masri to walk freely through the streets of Tel Aviv, dine in restaurants and hotels, and now the absurdity reaches its peak when he is about to receive state land to build hotels and luxury buildings in a strategic location facing the Old City of Jerusalem.
“That same ‘terrorist in a suit,’ who hosted senior Hamas officials at his hotel in Gaza while allowing them to use facilities beneath it, is now set to build a hotel here, in Israel. You murder — and then inherit? That is the feeling we are getting from this inconceivable process. The message to us, the bereaved families, is: murder Jews today, profit from it tomorrow. The blood of our children is no longer just abandoned — it has become a profitable real estate project.
'How did we reach this insane situation?'
The discussion revealed that there is currently no formal procedure requiring planning committees to consider broad national-security considerations, and that there is a serious failure in information coordination between planning authorities and security and intelligence agencies. Knesset lawmaker Amit Halevi, who initiated the discussion, asked at its outset: “The question is how we got to this insane situation. A person whose hotel served as a base for organizing the massacre, when every public building in Gaza became a Hamas command center. First of all, I want to know how we reached a point where this issue arrived at the district committee. Does the committee consider security considerations? Is the Shin Bet involved?”
Tzviya Zicherman, legal adviser to the Planning Administration, explained that the plan was submitted to the planning bureau in 2022 by the Greek Orthodox Church and that, because the land is unregistered, ownership was unclear for a long period. Attorney Gilad Alon from the National Planning Headquarters added that a planning institution has no authority to allocate land and deals only with planning, not with the identity of the owners.
“A planning institution is technocratic. There are conditions set out in law, and during the discussion the relevant parties will explain their positions, and it is possible that the considerations will be reassessed,” Alon said.
Natali Zaken, a representative of the Jerusalem Municipality, said the plan reached the district committee five years ago, and that questions regarding ownership have only recently arisen. According to her, the matter was removed from the committee’s agenda in light of the new information received. She reiterated that no incident has emerged linking Bashar al-Masri to the planning process.
The Interior Committee decided to approach the Ministry of Defense and relevant security bodies, including the Shin Bet, the National Security Council and the Counterterrorism Bureau, to examine the considerations applied by planning committees, the flow of security information, and the security, legal and financial status of the parties involved.
Knesset lawmaker Yitzhak Kreuzer, chairman of the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee, made clear that the plan under discussion will not move forward, and that any future initiative involving the same individual, in any legal or corporate framework, will be subject to strict scrutiny.
“Planning in Jerusalem is not merely a technical matter, but a national-security issue,” he said. “We will not allow a terror-supporting Palestinian developer, Bashar al-Masri, to take control of land in Jerusalem.”