Meet Stuart Seldowitz: Ex-US official under fire for bigotry, Islamophobia
The former American official and lobbyist tirades at a New York street vendor, which went viral on social media, led to widespread condemnation and his firing from a lobbying firm.
NEW YORK — A former US State Department official has been fired from his lobbying job after making anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic remarks, the latest in a series of hateful incidents in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war.
What happened: Videos surfaced on Tuesday of a man, later identified as Stuart Seldowitz, engaged in verbal arguments with a street food vendor in New York City over the Gaza war. In one video, Seldowitz said, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough.”
this man is continuing to berate and harass the halal cart vendor. He ends the video with “if we killed 4,000 palestinian kids? It wasn’t enough”. pic.twitter.com/yhu4HSvIEZ
— layla, lmsw (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
More than 14,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to AFP. The United Nations’ agency for children UNICEF said on Monday that more than 5,000 children are among the dead. Around 1,200 people in Israel have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
In another video, Seldowitz asked the vendor, “Did you rape your daughter like [Prophet] Muhammad did?" after the vendor had previously asked Seldowitz to leave.
