Former US official shows himself to be a racist bully
A video of an ex-US official racially abusing a vendor has gone viral on social media, according to Middle East Eye and agencies.
Stuart Seldowitz, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, was recorded repeatedly making racist and Islamophobic comments to a halal street vendor in Manhattan, New York.
Seldowitz,64, has been reportedly accosting the man, believed to be from Egypt, for around a fortnight. In one of several clips doing the rounds on X (formerly Twitter), he claims that the vendor “prays to a criminal” in reference to the Prophet Mohammed as well as taunting him saying that he will be deported back to Egypt, a country that the former politician makes numerous derogatory remarks to during the encounters.
A separate clip shows the racist agitator calling the individual a terrorist, accusing him of being a supporter of Palestinian militant group Hamas and angrily boasting that, “If we (the US) killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough”.
Since October 7, 13,500 Palestinians have been slaughtered in the besieged Gaza, of which 5,600 of them were children, by US-backed Israeli forces.
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Seldowitz also previously served as deputy director of the United States Department of State’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003 and until very recently was a member of the Zionist, Washington-based lobby firm Gotham Government Relations.
Following his foul-mouthed tirade, the firm announced that they would no longer be working with him.
A statement read, “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,” .
In a half-hearted apology the ex-official said, “I regret the whole thing happened and I’m sorry, but you know, in the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said.” .
The NYPD announced on November 21 that they had launched a hate crime investigation against the bigot.
The Guardian/ Middle East Eye
