Stuart Seldowitz, a former adviser to President Barack Obama who worked on the National Security Council South Asia Directorate, is facing backlash after videos surfaced showing him making Islamophobic comments and threats towards a New York City food cart employee. In the videos, posted on Twitter by a Columbia University student, Seldowitz is heard asking off-camera if the person he’s addressing “raped your daughter like Muhammad did” and callously stating that the killing of 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough.”
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Who is Stuart Seldowitz?
Seldowitz served as the acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under Obama and held the position of deputy director/senior political officer in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003. More recently, he was the foreign affairs chair for Gotham Government Relations, a lobbying group, a role announced in a press release in November 2022.
Following the release of the videos, Gotham Government Relations severed ties with Seldowitz and made a public announcement on Twitter, stating, “Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years. The video of his actions is vile, racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.” Seldowitz’s profile has also been removed from the firm’s website.
In one of the videos, Seldowitz is seen speaking to a man inside a food cart, brandishing his phone and making references to “friends in immigration” and the Egyptian intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat. He threatens the person in the cart, suggesting harm to his parents and making disturbing comments about removing fingernails.
