Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) is calling on billionaire Bill Gates to step in and ban Hamas terrorists from using any Four Seasons hotels, including one of the company’s properties in Qatar, noting that the Microsoft co-founder and former CEO has a controlling stake in the hotel chain through his investment firm.
A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Waltz wrote to Gates on Tuesday urging him to block jihadists from any Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts — and said he may be subject to “counterterrorism sanctions” if he refuses to comply.
Hamas’ political wing has previously hosted events at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha, including a 2016 reception with then-Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and a 2015 press conference by senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashal.
Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of the Hamas Politburo, has also stayed at the luxury resort and has been accused by a member of Israel’s Foreign Ministry of “lounging” there while overseeing the barbaric Oct. 7 terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as ordering Palestinians to be blocked from leaving the Gaza Strip before an anticipated ground invasion by the Israel Defense Forces.
The Four Seasons said in an Oct. 15 statement that “Haniyeh is not living at or staying at Four Seasons Hotel Doha,” but did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment about the length of his previous stays.
Gates’ Cascade Investment, LLC, acquired a majority stake in the Four Seasons in 2021, when the firm purchased 23.75% of the hotel company from Saudi Arabian billionaire Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud.
“Others have allegedly stayed there since, including during and after Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack that has so far resulted in at least 1,400 people killed in Israel, 3,400 others wounded, and 199 kidnapped,” Waltz wrote Tuesday.
“At least 260 people alone were killed at a music festival near Kibbutz Re’im. The State Department has confirmed that so far 30 US citizens have been killed with another 13 unaccounted for,” he added.
“There is credible reporting of beheaded infants, people burned alive, others raped, still others likely to be tortured, with their agony broadcast, during the weeks ahead.”
Waltz further noted that giving “material support” to the terrorist organization would open Gates up to “legal penalties, including up to life in prison.”
“Perhaps more immediately, it mandates a broad exclusion from the United States any non-US persons that engages in terrorist activity, including through actions like providing material support, such as housing, for terrorists,”
The Florida Republican also said that Gates’ name could be added to the National Counterterrorism Center and the State Department’s visa database, or even placed on the Transportation Security Administration’s “Do Not Fly” list for the Four Seasons having abetted Hamas.
“Though the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security can issue exemptions for certain limited material support, among other things, as a matter of policy these can be reversed by a future administration,” Waltz added, pointing out that at one point 1.6 million people were in government databases for enabling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“An affirmative finding by the government may not be communicated to you or them immediately, but rather revealed through either an indictment, through a future refusal of entry at a US port, or some other action,” Waltz said. “I would advise you to socialize this knowledge with the staff of Cascade Investment, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and your Four Seasons hotel in Doha.”
The letter was also sent to Isadore Sharp, the founder and chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Neither the Gates Foundation nor Cascade immediately responded to a request for comment.
