NY AG condemns ex-State Department official’s viral “disgusting, hateful” harassment of food vendor

A former State Department employee in recent weeks was recorded harassing a halal food vendor in Manhattan, calling the man a “terrorist,” The New York Times reports. Stuart Seldowitz, who held positions in both Democratic and Republican administrations including deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, was seen in several videos posted to X/Twitter, taking pictures of the vendor and pelting him with Islamophobic comments. After a brief, tense exchange about children being killed, Seldowitz tells the man, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough.” The recordings of the encounters went viral online as tensions have intensified between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups across the country since the beginning of Israel’s war on Hamas.

The video clips show Seldowitz returning to the same vendor over several days — once at night and twice during the day — and refusing to leave each time. In one clip, he’s heard saying, “It’s a free country — it’s not like Egypt” and calling the vendor “ignorant” for not speaking English before continuing to make inflammatory comments about the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad. While the Times was unable to reach the vendor for comment, Seldowitz told the outlet that the back-and-forths started after he asked the vendor if he was Egyptian. As the conversation continued, Seldowitz said the man expressed support for Hamas. No such claims, however, are shown in any of the public videos. Seldowitz also expressed regret for the remarks he made toward the vendor, said he returned to the location to ask if the man was “still a supporter of Hamas” and insisted he is not Islamophobic. “This is disgusting, hateful, and New York won’t tolerate it,” New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted of Seldowitz’s conduct. “We won’t stand for Islamophobia or any kind of hate in our state.”