Stuart Seldowitz, a former adviser to Barack Obama, has been arrested on preliminary charges of hate crime and stalking after a series of racist incidents directed at an Arab food vendor in New York.
The 64-year-old, who served as acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under Obama and deputy director in the US State Department바카라s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003, faces second-degree aggravated harassment, stalking causing fear, and stalking at employment charges.
Several videos posted on social media show Seldowitz harassing the vendor on multiple occasions, making Islamophobic comments, insulting the Qur'an, and taunting the man about his citizenship status.
In one video, Seldowitz accused the vendor of supporting Hamas, referencing Israel's recent war on Gaza. So far, more than 14,500 people have ben killed in Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the official death toll from Hamas바카라s attacks stands at about 1,200.
Seldowitz's remarks in one video include: 바카라You support killing little children. You바카라re a terrible person.바카라
The vendor replied: 바카라You kill children, not me.바카라
Seldowitz said: 바카라If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what, it wasn바카라t enough. It wasn바카라t enough.바카라
Council member Julie Menin announced that the New York Police Department has launched a hate crime investigation, condemning Seldowitz's actions as "truly abhorrent."
Seldowitz later apologised for the incident, acknowledging that he said things he shouldn't have in the heat of the moment.
"I regret the whole thing happened and I바카라m sorry바카라 In the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn바카라t have said," he said on Tuesday.
The incident comes amid an increase in reported anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias incidents in the US since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Concurrently, reports of antisemitic incidents have also surged after Israel바카라s retaliation, making Gaza an open-air prison. FBI Director Christopher Wray highlighted a "historic levels" threat of antisemitic incidents, with the Anti-Defamation League reporting a 388% increase in reported incidents in the weeks following October 7 compared to the same period last year.
