Ex-Obama adviser Stuart Seldowitz says killing 4000 Palestinian children ‘wasn’t enough’ in racist rant

Stuart Seldowitz launched a tirade against New York food vendor, calling him a ‘terrorist’. Photo / Twitter

WARNING: This story may be distressing.

A former adviser to Barack Obama said killing 4000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough” during a racist and Islamophobic rant at a food vendor in New York.

In videos shared on social media, Stuart Seldowitz can be heard asking someone off-camera whether they raped their “daughter like Muhammad did” and saying: “Muhammad, your prophet ... He was a rapist.”

Seldowitz was the acting director of the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under Obama, and was deputy director in the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003.

Most recently, he served as the foreign affairs chair for lobbying firm Gotham Government Relations, which cut ties with him following the release of the videos.

In three separate viral clips, Seldowitz appeared to be speaking to a man working in a food van in New York City. In one, he can be heard saying he is going to “put up big signs here that say ‘This guy believes in Hamas’”.

The vendor then says he is an American citizen, to which Seldowitz asks how he became one and calls him a “terrorist.

“You support killing little children. You’re a terrible person,” Seldowitz says. The vendor replies: “You kill children, not me.”

Seldowitz says: “If we killed 400 Palestinian kids, you know what, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough.”

‘I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said’

In another clip, Seldowitz refers to his “friends in immigration” and that “the Mukhabarat wants your picture” in an apparent reference to an Egyptian intelligence agency.

“The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one,” he says.

The vendor repeatedly asks Seldowitz to leave, telling him that he does not speak English. “Tell me why I should go? I’m standing here. I’m an American. It’s a free country. It’s not like Egypt,” Seldowitz replies.

When the man repeats that he does not speak English, Seldowitz calls him “ignorant” before asking whether he spoke Arabic, “the language of the Koran.

“The holy Koran that some people use as a toilet. What do you think of that, people who used the Koran as a toilet? Does it bother you?” he says.

Seldowitz has since apologised for the incident, saying on Tuesday evening: “I regret the whole thing happened and I’m sorry... In the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said. If I had to do it all over again, I would not have raised the religious aspect.”

Seldowitz insisted he was not bigoted against Muslims, saying: “I don’t think I’m an Islamophobic guy. I’ve spoken up for equal treatment of Muslims on numerous occasions with numerous different people.”