NEW YORK – A former Obama-era National Security Council official has been arrested after a series of videos shared widely on social media showed him using hate-laden, Islamophobic language against an employee working inside a New York City food cart, police said.
Stuart Seldowitz, 64, was arrested Wednesday on preliminary charges of hate crime/stalking, second-degree aggravated harassment, stalking/causing fear and stalking at employment, according to the NYPD.
It’s unclear what charges Seldowitz will ultimately face when the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office gets the case.
According to CNN, and before his arrest was announced, Seldowitz confirmed to the cable network in an email that it was him in the videos, which were recorded by a vendor from inside a food cart on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and appear to be from different days.
In the videos posted on social media and which went viral, Seldowitz mocks Islam, taunts the man about his citizenship status, accuses him of supporting Hamas and references the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
“You support killing little children,” Seldowitz says to the vendor in one video. The vendor retorts, “You kill children, not me.”
Seldowitz replies, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, you know what? It wasn’t enough!”
In one of the videos posted online, Seldowitz tells the vendor, “We’re going to put big signs here saying this guy believes in Hamas.”
Seldowitz also makes derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed, ridiculing Islam, which he appears to believe is the vendor’s religion.
The videos come as the U.S. is experiencing an “unprecedented” increase in reported anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias incidents since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Council on American-Islamic relations (CAIR).
At the same time, the reports of anti-Semitic incidents across the country have also spiked, with FBI Director Christopher Wray saying last month the threat was reaching “historic levels.”
In one of the videos posted online, Seldowitz tells the vendor, “We’re going to put big signs here saying this guy believes in Hamas.”
In another video, Seldowitz asks the man whether he’s familiar with Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, better known as the Mukhabarat.
“Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents,” Seldowitz says to the vendor. “Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one.”
The former Obama government official then holds up his phone, says, “Smile for me” and laughs.
Stuart Seldowitz, former deputy director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, is arrested in New York on November 22, after being filmed harassing and stalking an Egyptian man. – Photo: X/screenshot
Seldowitz also makes derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed, ridiculing Islam, which he appears to believe is the vendor’s religion.
Seldowitz told the Daily Beast that while he started up the conversation with the food vendor about current affairs, the video clips only show one side of the story. He told the outlet the vendor instigated the interaction by allegedly expressing his support for Hamas.
The former official also told City & State, “I regret the whole thing happened and I’m sorry.” He added, “But you know, in the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said.”
Seldowitz served as acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate in the early 2000s, according to a since-removed profile page on lobbying group Gotham Government Relations’ website. According to his LinkedIn profile, Seldowitz served in the position from February 2009 to January 2011 during former President Obama’s administration.
“Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years,” a statement on the New York City-based group’s website reads. “The video of his actions is vile, racist and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.”
The managing director of an advocacy group representing street vendors across New York City told CNN on Tuesday the man who took the videos told him Seldowitz had been tormenting his food cart since November 8.
Mohamed Attia, of the Street Vendor Project, said the vendor told him he did not instigate the conversation with Seldowitz.
Attia said the Egyptian-born vendor, identified only by his first name, Mohamed, doesn’t speak English well and for that reason doesn’t engage in many conversations with his customers, let alone complicated and nuanced conversations about war.
“Mohamed told me he doesn’t know how to respond to or know what to say to the guy and kept playing it safe by asking the guy to go away,” Attia told CNN.
The advocacy group is “appalled by the racist Islamophobia” seen in the videos, it said in a statement, adding and that the vendors at the center of this incident “feared speaking out would put them at risk of displacement.”
“No one should have to choose between harassment or displacement,” the statement posted on social media reads.
New York City Council member Julie Menin reached out to the organization and reported the incidents to police, Attia said.
“This is vile hate speech and harassment and truly abhorrent,” Menin tweeted Tuesday. “There is no place for hate in our community and city.”
– CNN and the Daily Beast. Edited for style.
Leave a Reply