Ex-State Dept. Official Filmed Harassing NYC Street Vendor Arrested

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Facts

  • A former US State Department official — identified as Stuart Seldowitz — has been filmed harassing and directing Islamophobic comments at a New York City Upper East Side halal cart vendor on multiple occasions in videos that emerged this week.1
  • Seldowitz, who previously held senior roles in the department's Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs between 1999 and 2003, as well as in former Pres. Barack Obama's National Security Council, was arrested Wednesday. He faces charges of aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, stalking causing fear, and stalking at a place of employment.2
  • In one instance, Seldowitz suggested the Islamic prophet Mohammed is a 'rapist.' In another, referencing Israel's bombardment of Gaza, he said: 'If we killed 4K Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough.' According to UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell, more than 5K Palestinian children have in fact been killed since Oct. 7.3
  • A further video, the first to be posted online, showed Seldowitz threatening to report the vendor to his 'friends in immigration' as well as Egypt's security services, who he said would torture him when the individual was deported 'back to Egypt.' There was no indication at that stage that the man was in fact Egyptian.3
  • In a phone interview with the New York Times, Seldowitz alleged that the man had expressed support for Hamas — considered a terrorist entity by a number of governments — in an interaction before filming commenced. These claims have not yet been substantiated by the public videos, and cannot be verified at this stage.4
  • Seldowitz told the Times: 'At that point, I got rather upset and I’ve said things to him, that in retrospect, I probably regret [...] that I do regret.' He insisted however that he was not Islamophobic: 'I have many people who are Muslims and Arabs and so on, who know me very well and who know that I’m not prejudiced against them.'4

Sources: 1BBC News, 2Al Jazeera, 3New York Post and 4The New York Times.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by CNN. These comments are unacceptable by any reasonable standard and should be condemned. It is right that Seldowitz is now facing charges. Nonetheless, it is only one instance of a much wider issue amid a severe increase of tension in New York City, particularly following pro-Israel and pro-Palestine rallies that have led to an increase in both anti-Semitic, as well as anti-Islam attacks.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Middle East Eye. It is absolutely right that Seldowitz has been dropped by his firm and is facing criminal charges for the vile things he said. Yes discrimination has become widespread, but the fact that someone once so influential in government has been caught making such remarks raises more serious questions about the commonality of these views among those determining policy at the highest level of governance.

Predictions