Mike Waltz demands Bill Gates ban Hamas from Four Seasons hotels

U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz is calling on billionaire tech trailblazer and philanthropist Bill Gates to prohibit the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas from using Four Seasons hotels, including one of the company’s properties in Qatar.

If Gates refuses to abide by that demand, he could face “counterterrorism sanctions,” Waltz said in a letter Tuesday to Gates.

Waltz also sent the letter to Four Seasons founder and Chair Isadore Sharp, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Gates’ investment firm, Cascade Investment LLC (operating as Cascade Asset Management), purchased a controlling share of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts from Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in September 2021.

Cascade had since 2007 held a 47.5% share of the company. It bought 23.75% more two years ago.

Media reports show the Four Seasons hotel in Doha, Qatar’s capital, has hosted Hamas-tied events at least twice in the past decade. One was a 2015 press conference by former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, who last week called on Muslims worldwide and “scholars who teach (and learn) jihad” to act out after Israel retaliated against Hamas’ brutal murder Oct. 7 of civilians near the Gazan border.

The other came a year later, when Meshaal held a closed-door meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

But other Hamas members have “allegedly stayed there since, including during and after Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack,” Waltz said, “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.” The Four Seasons denied the allegations, lodged by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement Oct. 15.

“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 said. He also noted Hamas members murdered at least 30 U.S. citizens and that another 13 are still missing from the Oct. 7 attack.

Gaza’s health ministry said close to 3,500 people in Palestine have been killed and more than 12,00 have been injured since Israel launched a counterattack. Those figures do not differentiate between members of Hamas and civilians.

Since 1997, the United States has designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Federal law provides that U.S. citizens who give material support to FTOs face significant punishment, including up to life in prison.

Waltz warned that Gates’ name could be added to several government databases, including the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, State Department’s visa database and the Transportation Security Administration’s “Do Not Fly” list.

“I urge you to ensure that neither your companies, nor your employees, nor you yourself are providing such material support to Hamas or any other FTO,” Waltz said. He warned that if Gates fails to comply, the next time he’ll hear about this issue could be “through either an indictment, through a future refusal of entry at a U.S. port, or some other action.”

Waltz then took aim not at Gates’ business practices but the man himself. Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, gave $33.4 billion by 2022 to mostly humanitarian causes, particularly those aimed at health and poverty.

Gates, who isn’t Jewish, has not yet publicly spoken about the attack on Israel or the country’s ongoing retaliatory actions in Gaza. He should do so, and quickly, Waltz said.

“I further note with concern your silence on the appalling massacre of Israelis that occurred last weekend. This seems particularly difficult to understand given your focus on humanitarian causes and potentially carries significant reputational damage,” he said. “I urge you and your companies to make a statement on behalf of the people of Israel and pledge to prevent any future use of the Four Seasons by Hamas.”

Waltz, a Republican former Green Beret and counterterrorism adviser to Dick Cheney, represents Florida’s 6th Congressional District, which stretches from southern Jacksonville to New Smyrna Beach along the state’s eastern shoreline.