Police have arrested a former official from the Obama government who called an Egyptian street vendor a terrorist and said the deaths of 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough”.
Stuart Seldowitz’s actions were caught on camera and he faces charges including aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, and stalking at a place of employment.
Video of the 64-year-old having arguments with the unidentified man over the Israel-Hamas war went viral earlier this month.
In one clip, filmed in a Manhattan street, he tells the halal food seller: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough!”
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In another, when the vendor asks his name, he says it’s Muhammad – and when the man tells him to leave he tells him: “But you’re a terrorist, you support terrorism.”
New York Police said a 24-year-old man had complained he had been approached “multiple times” by a person making “anti-Islamic statements” that caused him “to feel afraid and annoyed”.
Mr Seldowitz worked in the State Department as acting director for the National Security Council’s South Asia directorate during President Obama’s government, according to his LinkedIn profile – which is now down.
He told the New York Times he had also worked for the State Department’s office of Israel and Palestinian affairs.
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Speaking before his arrest, he claimed the videos didn’t tell the whole story and he only got upset after the man said he supported the Hamas terror attack on Israel on 7 October.
“The comments that went beyond him, and could be interpreted as attacks on Muslims and Arab-Americans and so on, were probably not appropriate,” Mr Seldowitz told WNBC television.
“The comments I made calling him out for his support of terrorism – those I think were appropriate.”
Asked about the videos, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “The United States unequivocally opposes racist or discriminatory language of any form.”
