Seldowitz embarked on his national security trajectory when he served as the deputy director/senior U.S. policy officer in the State Dep...
Seldowitz embarked on his national security trajectory when he served as the deputy director/senior U.S. policy officer in the State Department's Bureau of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003. This crucial experience formed the foundation for his later engagement in significant political and security matters
Second Bigot story: The NYPD reported
that the individual responsible for assaulting a father and son with
anti-Palestine insults and throwing hot coffee at them in a Brooklyn
playground earlier this month surrendered to police on Tuesday morning.
Authorities indicated that 48-year-old Hadasa Bozakkaravani faced
increasing pressure to turn herself in after being identified by the
police. Her photo was widely circulated by locals in the vicinity of
Edmonds Playground in Fort Greene, displayed on walls and in
storefronts, as part of a community effort to ensure her apprehension.
Read More at CNN | AlJazeera | The Newyorker | NYTIMES | Skeptics | Instagram |
پہلے کتّے کی طرح بھونکتے اور پھر معافی مانگ لیتے۔ لیکن جو طنز کرتے ہوئے اس لعنتی کے منہ سے نکلا وہ سچ ہے اور ہمیں یقین ہے کہ ان کی دل مسلمانوں کی نفرت سے جھلس رہے. یہ معصوموں کو قتل کرتے ہیں، کرچکے ہیں، اور کر رہے ہیں۔ اور آگے بھی کرتے رہیں گے۔ لیکن ہم خاموش ہیں، یا ان کے ہاتھوں سے مارے جائیں یا ان کے خلاف بولنے سے مارے جائيں۔ یا پھر بزدلوں کی طرح چپ ہوجائيں اور سب اچھا ہے کے راگ آلاپتے رہیں۔
you will promise to stop harassing students and firing employees
for expressing their support for Palestinians or Black Lives Matter or whatever
other cause they think is righteous”—is premised on a silly fantasy. Those who
want to curtail freedom of speech do not log the debits and credits of
censorship, nor do they care about the balance of norms—they act when they have
power. And they should be resisted because it is immoral to imprison someone
for expressing their views, however righteous or repulsive they may be. These
principles were once safeguarded by institutions such as the A.C.L.U., which
famously defended the First Amendment rights of Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, but
that type of advocacy feels both verboten and anachronistic now. It’s hard to
imagine that any legal organization would come to the defense of Stuart
Seldowitz’s right to say awful things about the slaughter of Palestinian
children. This is unfortunate because we are in a period of seismic change for
civil liberties, especially when it comes to the First Amendment, surveillance,
and the sanctity of a free press, and it has never been more vital to defend
the moral case for free speech. One does not need to put forth a slippery-slope
argument to point out how all this could go wrong. Nearly everything we do in
public is surveilled, most of our communication is controlled by tech
companies, and any of us could go viral at any moment. We should denounce any
show court that bends the law in arbitrary ways to incarcerate people who get
caught on video saying unpopular things. ♦ Ex-Obama adviser Stuart Seldowitz
arrested after Islamophobic rant The former State Department official was
filmed harassing a Muslim street vendor in New York, saying more Palestinian
children should be killed in Gaza. Stuart Seldowitz Video Duration 01 minutes
20 seconds 01:20 Published On 23 Nov 2023 23 Nov 2023 A former high-ranking US
government official has been arrested after being captured on video calling a
halal food vendor in New York City a “terrorist” and saying the death of 4,000
Palestinian children in Gaza “wasn’t enough”. Stuart
Seldowitz, 64, who previously served as deputy director of the US
State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, was arrested on
Wednesday on charges of aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, stalking
causing fear, and stalking at a place of employment, New York police said in a
statement. KEEP READING list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Ex-Obama adviser Stuart
Seldowitz filmed abusing halal cart vendor list 2 of 4 Ex-Obama adviser says
more Palestinian kids should die in Islamophobic rant list 3 of 4 Islamophobia
is not ‘freedom of speech’ list 4 of 4 Islamophobia, anti-Semitism rises in
Europe amid Israel-Hamas war: Official end of list “A 24-year-old male victim
stated to police that an individual approached him at his work place 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
this month of multiple arguments over Israel’s war on Gaza between Seldowitz
and an Egyptian man working in a halal cart in Manhattan. “If we killed 4,000
Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough,” Seldowitz says in one exchange captured on
video and posted on the social media platform X. The vendor is seen
telling Seldowitz to “go, go, go, go” and “I won’t hear it”. Seldowitz then
responds: “But you’re a terrorist. You support terrorism.” In other exchanges,
Seldowitz is heard casting slurs against Prophet Muhammad, and calling the
vendor “ignorant” for his lack of fluency in English. “The Mukhabarat [the intelligence agency] in
Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll
take them out one by one,” he says smiling. ‘Not appropriate’ Seldowitz served
as the acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate
under the former President Barack Obama administration. He also worked as a
senior political officer in the State Department’s Office of Israel and
Palestinian Affairs. Seldowitz told local television news before his detention
on Wednesday that the video posted on social media failed to tell the whole
story and that he became upset after the man expressed sympathies for the
Palestinian group Hamas – although none of the videos shows the vendor
mentioning the group that rules Gaza. “The comments that went beyond him [the
vendor], and could be interpreted as attacks on Muslims and Arab-Americans and
so on, were probably not appropriate,” he told WNBC television. “The comments I
made calling him out for his support of terrorism – those I think were
appropriate.” After Seldowitz’s actions went viral, New Yorkers rallied to
support the vendor, lining up to buy chicken and rice at the food cart in
Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighbourhood on Tuesday. The Street Vendor Project, which works with
the thousands of food carts in New York, described a “moving scene” with New
Yorkers from “all walks of life coming together” and “taking a stand against
anti-Muslim hate”. On October 7, Hamas launched an attack in Israel that killed
1,200 people. Israel has since bombarded the Gaza Strip, killing more than
14,500 Palestinians. In the US, the war has prompted a surge in anti-Semitism
and Islamophobia and fuelled frequent street protests in support of both Israel
and Palestine. Asked about the incident by the Reuters news agency, US State
Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “The United States unequivocally
opposes racist or discriminatory language of any form.” CNN — A former
Obama-era National Security Council official was arrested Wednesday after a
series of videos shared widely on social media showed him using hate-laden,
Islamophobic language against an employee working inside a New York City food
cart, police said. Stuart Seldowitz, 64, pleaded not guilty Thursday to two
counts of fourth-degree hate crime/stalking and one count of second-degree
aggravated harassment, court records show. Seldowitz was released without bail,
according to court records. CNN has reached out to his attorney, Scott Laurence
Bookstein, for comment. Before his arrest was announced, Seldowitz confirmed to
CNN in an email it is him in the videos, which were recorded by a vendor from
inside a food cart on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and appear to be from
different days. In the videos posted online this month, Seldowitz mocks Islam,
taunts the man about his citizenship status, accuses him of supporting Hamas
and references the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. “You support killing little
children,” Seldowitz says to the vendor in one video. The vendor retorts, “You
kill children, not me.” Seldowitz replies, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian
children, you know what? It wasn’t enough!” The videos come as the US is
experiencing an “unprecedented” increase in reported anti-Arab and anti-Muslim
bias incidents since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the
Council on American-Islamic relations. At the same time, the reports of
antisemitic incidents across the country have also spiked, with FBI Director
Christopher Wray saying last month the threat was reaching “historic levels”
and the Anti-Defamation League reporting a 388% increase in reported incidents
in the weeks following October 7, compared to the same period last year.
Tensions over the ongoing war in Gaza have also been high in New York City in
recent weeks as pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been taking place. In one
of the videos posted online, Seldowitz tells the vendor, “We’re going to put
big signs here saying this guy believes in Hamas.” Videos show former Obama-era
National Security adviser spewing obscene Islamophobic language at food vendor.
Videos show a former Obama-era National Security Council official spewing
Islamophobic language at food vendor. Videos show Stuart Seldowitz taunting the
vendor during what appears to be separate incidents. In another video,
Seldowitz asks the man whether he’s familiar with Egypt’s General Intelligence
Service, better known as the Mukhabarat. “Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your
parents,” Seldowitz says to the vendor. “Does your father like his fingernails?
They’ll take them out one by one.” The former government official then holds up
his phone, says, “Smile for me,” and laughs. Seldowitz also makes derogatory
comments about the Prophet Mohammed, ridiculing Islam, which he appears to
believe is the vendor’s religion. When asked via email for additional comment
on the videos, Seldowitz said, “Happy to talk (Wednesday). What was absent from
the video is what (the vendor) said before the video.”
palestine-israel-split-1.jpg ‘Every move I make, I second guess’: These Muslim
and Arab Americans say the surge in hate has made them more vigilant Seldowitz,
64, told the Daily Beast while he started up the conversation with the food
vendor about current affairs, the video clips only show one side of the story.
He told the outlet the vendor instigated the interaction by allegedly
expressing his support for Hamas. The former official also told City &
State, “I regret the whole thing happened and I’m sorry.” He added, “But you
know, in the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have
said.” Seldowitz served as acting director for the National Security Council
South Asia Directorate in the early 2000s, according to a since-removed profile
page on lobbying group Gotham Government Relations’ website. According to his
LinkedIn profile, Seldowitz served in the position from February 2009 to
January 2011 during former President Barack Obama’s administration. “Gotham
Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an
individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years,” a statement on the New
York City-based group’s website reads. “The video of his actions is vile,
racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.”
Seldowitz has been berating vendor for 2 weeks, advocate says The managing
director of an advocacy group representing street vendors across New York City
told CNN on Tuesday the man who took the videos told him Seldowitz had been
tormenting his food cart since November 8. Mohamed Attia, of the Street Vendor
Project, said the vendor told him he did not instigate the conversation with
Seldowitz. Attia said the Egyptian-born vendor, identified only by his first
name, Mohamed, doesn’t speak English well and for that reason doesn’t engage in
many conversations with his customers, let alone complicated and nuanced
conversations about war. “Mohamed told me he doesn’t know how to respond to or
know what to say to the guy and kept playing it safe by asking the guy to go
away,” Attia told CNN. The advocacy group is “appalled by the racist
Islamophobia” seen in the videos, they said in a statement, adding the vendors
at the center of this incident “feared speaking out would put them at risk of
displacement.” “No one should have to choose between harassment or
displacement,” the statement posted on social media reads. New York City
Council member Julie Menin reached out to the organization and reported the
incidents to police, Attia said. “This is vile hate speech and harassment and
truly abhorrent,” Menin tweeted Tuesday. “There is no place for hate in our
community and city.”
Check out this post: https://twitter.com/VendorPower/status/1727451234687144318?s=20
https://youtu.be/XfdAXifx89g?si=zuAiXGQPyIWCyENK
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