GOP Congressman Tells Bill Gates 'You're on Notice' Over Four Seasons Hotel in Qatar
Bill Gates has been put on notice.
Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz made a point of calling out the mega-billionaire Microsoft co-founder over Gates’ ownership stake in the luxury hotel chain Four Seasons, declaring that the company’s property in Doha, Qatar, has hosted the Islamic terror group Hamas.
“Bill Gates owns the Four Seasons which has hosted Hamas – a declared terrorist organization- at its Doha resort,” Waltz, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a social media post.
The post follows reports that Hamas’s senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh, is living at the hotel as he hides away from Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza for the Oct. 7 terrorist massacre in Israel that killed more than 1,000.
“Allowing these terrorists to use his hotels is a violation of the law,” Waltz continued. “You’re on notice.”
Bill Gates owns the Four Seasons which has hosted Hamas – a declared terrorist organization- at its Doha resort.
Allowing these terrorists to use his hotels is a violation of the law. You’re on notice. https://t.co/eNx4AkJKiZ
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) October 17, 2023
The New York Post published a letter Waltz sent to Gates in which he warned of “counterterrorism sanctions” if Gates fails to issue an outright ban on any Hamas official visiting the hotel’s premises, noting that any provision of “material support” would open him up to “legal penalties, including up to life in prison.”
In the letter, Waltz wrote that a Gates-owned holding company, Cascade Investment, LLC, owns 71.25 percent of Four Seasons stock in 2021.
Waltz’s letter did not specifically refer to Haniyeh allegedly staying at the Qatar hotel, but did note there is a history of the terror group using its facilities.
“According to news reports, Hamas personnel have used the Four Seasons in Doha for official Hamas-linked events in the past, such as a 2015 press conference by senior Hamas leader Khamed Meshaal. In 2016, Meshaal reportedly met with [then] Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu at the Four Seasons in Doha,” Waltz wrote.
“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.
“At least 260 people alone were killed at a music festival near Kibbutz Re’im,” he continued. “The State Department has confirmed that so far 30 US citizens have been killed with another 13 unaccounted for.”
“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.”
The Four Seasons resort has denied the claims, writing on the social media platform X that Haniyeh is “not living at or staying at Four Seasons Hotel Doha.”
We can confirm that Ismail Haniyeh is not living at or staying at Four Seasons Hotel Doha.
— Four Seasons Hotels (@FourSeasons) October 15, 2023
Gates has yet to publicly respond to the letter.
Waltz’s warning came nearly two weeks after the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas broke out after Hamas terrorists kidnapped and murdered hundreds of innocent civilians.
President Joe Biden has offered his full backing to Israel in the wake of the attack. He made an official visit to Israel that included meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss their response to the conflict.
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