Videos surfaced online on Tuesday showing a former adviser to former US President Barack Obama making Islamophobic remarks and harassing a food vendor in New York.
The videos, posted on the X website (formerly Twitter), show former US government official Stuart Seldowitz making provocative remarks about the Prophet and the Koran. He is also heard saying that killing 4,000 Palestinian children in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas is “not enough.” Seldowitz says:
“If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough.”
In one video, Seldowitz accuses the seller of supporting Hamas and calls him a “terrorist.” In another video, he refers to his “friends in immigration” and mentions “Mukhabarat,” apparently referring to the Egyptian intelligence service. He says, while the vendor repeatedly asks him to leave, stating he doesn’t speak English:
“The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one. Tell me why I should go? I’m standing here. I’m an American. It’s a free country. It’s not like Egypt.”
Seldowitz criticises the seller for not speaking English and accuses him of working in the US without a permit or visa. In his defence, Seldowitz told the media that he had a disagreement with the salesman after he expressed support for Hamas, but this is not in the video. He said he regretted his disparaging remarks about Islam, but strongly denied being an Islamophobe.
Asked why he kept going back to the vendor, Seldowitz told the NYT that he wanted to ask if the man “still supports Hamas,” adding that “I was upset that he was selling food in a New York City neighbourhood.”
Seldowitz previously served as acting director of the National Security Council’s Office of South Asian Affairs under the Obama administration and was deputy director/senior policy officer of the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999-2003. As of November 2022, he was appointed Foreign Affairs Chairman at Gotham Government Relations. Following the incident, Gotham Government Relations took to Twitter to announce the termination of its relationship with Seldowitz.
Gotham Government Relations issued a tweet that said:
“Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years. The video of his actions is vile, racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.”
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department told VICE News that they are aware of the incident and are currently keeping a hand on the situation.
