A New York political lobbying firm has offered to represent a halal street food vendor who was recently subjected to a sustained racist attack by one of its own consultants, a former state department official, in the latest encounter reflecting tension in the city over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Manhattan-based Gotham Government Relations firm said on Tuesday that it would cut all ties with Stuart Seldowitz, who worked in the US Department of State’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003 and later at the national security council during the Obama administration, after he was filmed harassing an Upper East Side street vendor.
In one widely shared video, Seldowitz is heard to ask the unidentified vendor: “Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?” In another, he states: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough.”
When the vendor says he doesn’t speak English, Seldowitz laughs and says, “That’s why you’re selling food in a food cart, because you’re ignorant,” before suggesting that the vendor will be deported to Egypt and tortured by intelligence agents.
“The mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents,” Seldowitz said in the video. “Does your father like his fingernails? They will take them out one by one.”
The vendor is heard asking Seldowitz to “please go” and saying that he would call the police.
An NYPD spokesperson told the outlet that they are aware of the videos and monitoring the situation but that no reports had been filed. The woman who posted the videos, who is believed to be a social activist and Columbia University graduate, said Seldowitz had been harassing the vendor for weeks.
Seldowitz was identified by the City & State publication, and later said that he’d had “an argument with a food vendor”, adding: “It is quite possible that it’s me. I mean, I’ve not seen the video, but I believe it’s probably me.”
The lobbying firm where Seldowitz was a consultant said it has cut ties with him, stating: “The video of his actions is vile racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.”
“I’m absolutely outraged by this video,” the founder and president of Gotham Government Relations, David Schwartz, told the outlet, adding: “I’ll represent the food vendor pro bono if he wants to bring a lawsuit.”
Another firm connected to Seldowitz, according to his LinkedIn profile, Northwestern Mutual, denied that the man caught in the videos was an employee or affiliated with it.
Seldowitz told City & State he was “blindsided” by being fired by the lobbying firm and said he had not worked with Gotham “for a very long time”.
He said he often passed the vendor and claimed he wanted to engage him in a discussion about current events. “I regret the whole thing happened and I’m sorry,” he said. “But you know, in the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said.”
The vendor told the Daily Mail, giving his name as Mohammad and his age as 24, that he did nothing to provoke Seldowitz, who he said started asking him two weeks ago where he was from and harassing him about the war between Hamas and Israel. His boss, Islam Mustafa, translating for him, said Mohammad felt “hurt”.
“He’s scared. He is just a worker. Now he’s fighting someone with connections and a lot of power,” Mustafa said.
