The former State Department official was filmed harassing a Muslim street vendor in New York, saying more Palestinian children should be killed in Gaza.
A former senior US government official has been arrested after he was caught on video calling a New York halal food vendor a “terrorist” and saying the deaths of 4,000 Palestinian children in Gaza “was not enough”.
Stuart Seldowitz, 64, who previously served as deputy director of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, was arrested Wednesday on charges of aggravated harassment, a hate crime, harassment causing fear and harassment in a workplace, New York. York Police said in a statement.
“A 24-year-old man told police that an individual approached him several times at his workplace and made anti-Islamic statements to him several times on different dates, causing the victim to feel fear and annoyance,” police said.
The video went viral this month, showing multiple arguments over Israel’s war on Gaza between Seldowitz and an Egyptian man working at a halal cart in Manhattan.
“If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, it wouldn’t be enough,” Seldowitz said in an exchange filmed and posted on the social media platform X.
The salesman is seen telling Seldowitz, “go ahead, go ahead, go ahead” and “I won’t hear it.” Seldowitz then responds: “But you are a terrorist. You support terrorism.
This man in a green jacket was berating and harassing a halal cart vendor near 83rd and 2nd Avenue in New York. Does anyone know who this man is? Plan to report to authorities. pic.twitter.com/GwklyXpsPH
– Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
In other exchanges, Seldowitz is heard hurling insults at the Prophet Muhammad and calling the seller “ignorant” due to his lack of fluency in English.
Seldowitz also threatens to use his government connections to mobilize the Egyptian secret police against the seller.
“The Mukhabarat (intelligence agency) in Egypt will catch your parents. Does your father like his nails? They will eliminate them one by one,” he said, smiling.
‘No appropriate’
Seldowitz served as acting director of the National Security Council’s South Asia Directorate during the administration of former President Barack Obama. He also worked as a senior policy official in the State Department’s Bureau of Israel and Palestinian Affairs.
Seldowitz told local television news before his arrest Wednesday that the video posted on social media did not tell the whole story and that he became upset after the man expressed sympathy for the Palestinian group Hamas – although none of the videos show the seller mentioning the group. who governs Gaza.
“Comments that went beyond him (the seller) and could be interpreted as attacks on Muslims and Arab Americans and so on were probably not appropriate,” he told WNBC television. “The comments I made denouncing him for supporting terrorism – those I think were appropriate.”
After Seldowitz’s actions went viral, New Yorkers rallied to support the vendor, lining up Tuesday to buy chicken and rice from the food cart in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The Street Vendor Project, which works with thousands of food carts in New York, described a “moving scene” with New Yorkers from “all walks of life coming together” and “taking a stand against anti-Muslim hatred.”
A moving scene where New Yorkers from all walks of life come together to support Mohamed, Sam and their colleagues on 83rd and 2nd Avenue, taking a stand against anti-Muslim hatred.
Sitting around a folding table provided by a SIU neighbor, sharing halal chicken over rice and bonding pic.twitter.com/6tC2nmEfX2
– Street Vendor Project (@VendorPower) November 22, 2023
On October 7, Hamas launched an attack in Israel that killed 1,200 people. Since then, Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip, killing more than 14,500 Palestinians.
In the United States, the war caused a rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and fueled frequent demonstrations of support for Israel and Palestine.
Asked about the incident by the Reuters news agency, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “The United States unequivocally opposes any racist or discriminatory language in any form. it would be. »
