Ex-State Department official Stuart Seldowitz arrested for hate crime after confronting halal food vendor in New York
- Former Obama adviser Stuart Seldowitz says killing 4,000 Palestinian children ‘wasn’t enough’ in video that went viral
- Seldowitz, 64, was arrested on charges that include aggravated harassment and hate crime stalking, police said
New York police on Wednesday arrested a former US State Department official after he was captured on video calling an Egyptian halal street vendor a terrorist and saying the death of 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough”.
Stuart Seldowitz, 64, was arrested on charges of aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, stalking causing fear, and stalking at a place of employment, police said in a statement.
“A 24-year-old male victim stated to police that an individual approached him at his workplace multiple times and made anti-Islamic statements multiple times on different dates causing the victim to feel afraid and annoyed,” police said.
Video went viral earlier this month of multiple arguments over the Israeli-Gaza conflict between Seldowitz, a former State Department employee, and the unidentified man working in a halal cart on a Manhattan sidewalk.
The war that broke out on October 7 has prompted a surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia in the United States and fuelled frequent street protests in support of both Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.
Social media posts showed Seldowitz saying: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough”.