Former US diplomat Stuart Seldowitz has been arrested and is facing multiple charges after a video of him harassing a halal cart vendor in New York went viral.

The NYPD has charged Seldowitz with second-degree aggravated harassment, hate crime/stalking, stalking to cause fear, and stalking at the place of employment, Documented reported.

In the video, Seldowitz, who previously served as deputy director of the US Department of State’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, is seen telling a man selling food: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough.”

The New York Police Department said Wednesday that Seldowitz was charged with second-degree aggravated harassment and three counts of stalking, one of which is stalking as a hate crime.

He is accused of approaching the 24-year-old at his workplace multiple times and making anti-Islamic statements, the NYPD said.

A person on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, posted a video of Seldowitz taunting the cart operator on the Upper East Side.

The vendor politely asked Seldowitz to leave.

“Why should I go?” Seldowitz asked. “I’m standing here. I’m an American. I have freedom. It’s a free country. It’s not like Egypt.”

“If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough,” Seldowitz said after telling the man he had “no right to be on the sidewalk.”

The vendor recorded Mr Seldowitz as he unleashed a torrent of abuse, and the videos have since gone viral after they were posted to social media.