Stuart Seldowitz was once an advisor in former President Barack Obama’s administration. Afterward, he took a top gig at the government lobbying firm Gotham Government Relations.
Seldowitz was reportedly fired after he threatened a food vendor, who he reportedly spent weeks harassing. Videos of the harassment went viral, and Seldowitz was fired soon afterward.
“The Mukhabarat wants your picture,” Seldowitz told a worker at a food cart, presumably referring to an Egyptian intelligence agency. “The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one.”
Off-screen, the vendor was audibly asking the former Obama advisor to leave him alone.
“Tell me why I should go? I’m standing here. I’m an American. It’s a free country. It’s not like Egypt,” Seldowitz responds. He laughed, held up the camera on his phone, and said, “Smile for me.”
The cart owner said, “I don’t speak English.”
“You’re ignorant. You should learn English. It’ll help you when they deport you back to Egypt and the Mukhabarat wants to interview you,” Seldowitz continued. “Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?”
“I born here,” the vendor replied, “Listen. I’m working now. Do you want something?”
“You’re not working. There’s nobody here. And we’re going to put big signs here that say, ‘This guy believes in Hamas,'” Seldowitz said. “You support killing little children.”
The vendor told the Obama alum, “You kill children, not me.”
Seldowitz concluded, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, it wasn’t enough.”
“You’re harassing this man.” a passerby said. The vendor threatened to call the police.
An interest group for vendors told the media that Seldowitz had been harassing the cart owner for two weeks.
A New York police spokesperson told Vice that police are “monitoring the situation.”
Take a look —
This man wearing a green jacket was berating and harassing a halal cart vendor off 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? Planning to report to the authorities. pic.twitter.com/GwklyXpsPH
— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
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 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
Under Obama, Seldowtiz directed the National Security Council South Asia Directorate. From 1999 to 2003, he also served as deputy director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs — ironically.
After leaving government, he reportedly served as foreign affairs chair for Gotham Government relations.
Seldowitz has also consulted for GDC Inc., a firm dedicated to providing humanitarian aid in war zones.
“My company is like a war-zone Uber/UPS for people and goods,” GDC Inc. CEO Moti Kahana told the Jerusalem Post in July. “We have 13 employees, including Stuart Seldowitz, who worked at the State Department during the Obama administration and is our humanitarian diplomacy senior consultant.”
The Horn editorial team