In a fresh antisemitic incident, an Indian-American couple can be seen, in a video posted on X, harassing and abusing a Jewish American In New York’s Manhattan.
In the video posted on X by Sonam Mahajan, the duo go to an extent of asking the man to leave the United States and go to Israel. The whole incident has been captured on camera by the Jewish man.
As per Mahajan’s post, the two Indian Americans can be identified as Shailja Gupta and Kurush Mistry. However, the identity of the Jewish man has not been revealed. In the video, the woman, at one point of time, identifies herself as a Palestinian and accuses all Israelis of being rapists.
Mahajan said that the Jewish man had encountered the duo on November 9, tearing down posters of Israeli civilians kidnapped by Hamas and replacing them with the ones saying Israelis deserved it.
The Hamas-Israel conflict
It has been more than a month after the vicious October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 as hostages, and the brutal reprisals by Israel against Hamas in Gaza that has claimed 10,000 lives according to the territory's health ministry controlled by Hamas.
In the video the Jewish man who seems to have held the camera asked the Indian American man his name to which the man replied showing his middle finger, a vulgar gesture signifying anger and rebellion. Seconds later the woman wearing a red jacket asked the Jewish man to mind his own business and showed him her middle finger.
The man pasting the poster on the pole then sayed that he is very proud of what he is doing. He then pulled out another poster from his bag which read "Israel is an apartheid state and commits genocide" and pasted it on the pole. The Indian American then asked unidentified Jewish man to go back to his country, while the woman in the red jacket captured the whole incident on her phone. Moments later both of them engaged in a verbal spat. At the end of the two minute six second long video, the Indian American pulled out a third poster which read "Occupiers face consequences” and pasted it on the pole.
Watch the video here:
In the tweet Mahajan said, “I want to start by assuring my Jewish friends that Gupta does not speak for the vast majority of Hindus. She is a vile person who also frequently makes disparaging remarks about Hindus, targeting their religious beliefs. We have no idea who these two are friends with or what their motivations are, but they appear pretty desperate and need to be made accountable for their actions.”
The incident's video soon gained widespread attention online, sparking conversations about hate speech and anti-Semitism in the community. The NYPD hasn't released a comment as of yet about any new measures or possible charges.
An X user offered more details on the lady who harassed the man on the streets of New York, despite the fact that the pair has not yet made a comment regarding the event. The X user, @YearOfTheKraken, tweeted that Shailja Gupta is the same person who created stuff for the superhero film Ra.One.
In addition to being accused of anti-Semitism, Gupta had strong anti-Hindu sentiments. Gupta described the Indian holiday Rakshabandhan as a "sexist holiday" on Facebook before of its 2021 observance. She implied that Rakshabandhan was a "yet another opportunity to pivot the emotional festival into Export Cash Cow.”
The man who harassed the Jewish man in the viral video is purportedly Kurush Mistry, Shaija's husband. According to her inactive Facebook profile, which had its most recent post from May 2017, Mistry is an Oil Analyst at Freepoint Commodities and is originally from Chennai. Mistry is an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus who formerly worked at Morgan Stanley as a commodities trader, according to his Facebook page.
Continued electricity outage in Gaza
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Saturday said that four patients in the ICU of the Al-Shifa Hospital died due to the continued electricity outage at the besieged enclave largest medical facility.
"Snipers are all around the buildings near the hospital and we hear excessive shootings and explosions continuously. We don't have electricity now and we have warned earlier about this disaster," Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.
On Saturday morning, a newborn baby died in the hospital also due to the lack of power supply.
For over a month, no fuel has been allowed into the Gaza Strip, including to the Al-Shifa Hospital.
