A Wall Street banker has been fired after screaming ‘go back to your country’ at a Jewish American man while he covered up posters pleading for the return of hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
Kurush Mistry and his partner Shailja Gupta have faced a huge backlash after the two-minute video posted on social media late last week of the incident in New York’s 68th Street and Riverside Boulevard went viral.
Mistry can be seen sticking the poster to a lamppost with Gupta beside him. A man asks him: ‘What’s your name sir? You must be very proud.’
The couple respond by sticking their middle fingers up at him.
The onlooker continues: ‘You’re real proud of yourself.’
Kurush Mistry and his partner Shailja Gupta have faced a huge backlash after the two-minute video posted on social media late last week of the incident in New York’s 68th Street and Riverside Boulevard went viral
Mistry can be seen sticking the poster to a lamppost with Gupta beside him. A man asks him: ‘What’s your name sir? You must be very proud.’ The couple respond by sticking their middle fingers up at him
Gupta records the man on her phone before getting into an argument with him
Mistry replies: ‘Very proud.’
As his partner appears to film the onlooker, Mistry then holds up a note that says: ‘Israel is an apartheid state and commits genocide.’
They then usher the man off, saying: ‘Go back to your country.’
He replies: ‘I’m an American.’ He then notes that he is an American Jew.’
The onlooker says: ‘You also want my country not to exist so where should I go?’
Gupta replies: You don’t want my f***ing country to exist.’
He asks: ‘What country is that?’
She responds: ‘Palestine.’
Mistry had worked at Freepoint Commodities for nine years, according to his LinkedIn page.
Mistry can be seen sticking the poster to a lamppost with Gupta beside him. A man asks him: ‘What’s your name sir? You must be very proud.’ The couple respond by sticking their middle fingers up at him. Gupta then films the onlooker on her phone
He has previously been employed at the banks Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Lehman Brothers.
Shailja Gupta’s LinkedIn account says that she has been working as a visual artist, film-maker and emerging tech strategic consultant for the last 29 years.
In a statement after the footage circulated online, Freepoint said it was ‘aware of the recent anti-Semitic incident reported on social media, and the individual involved is no longer associated with Freepoint’.
Two people familiar with the matter identified the individual in the video as Mistry and confirmed that he was dismissed from Freepoint, according to the Financial Times.
Freepoint is involved in energy, metals and agricultural markets and the company is based in Connecticut.
‘We welcome the diversity of views and opinions held by our employees, but Freepoint does not tolerate discrimination and hate speech directed against any group,’ the company said.
In August, high-profile US executives and financiers expressed fury over a statement issued by groups at Harvard University that held ‘the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence’.
Kurush Mistry and his partner Shailja Gupta
Law firms have rescinded offers to students over their involvement in groups criticizing Israel over the war and have called on universities to do more to clamp down on student antisemitism.
Academics from some of the nation’s most prominent institutions are set to meet next week to explore ways to defuse the tensions.
Home to between 1.6 and two million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, New York City has been rocked by demonstrations, rallies and vigils in support of the Palestinians and Israel since Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel.
The attack saw around 240 taken hostage by the terrorist group and about 1,200 Israelis have been killed.
There have been more than 11,200 Palestinians deaths – two-thirds of them women and minors – since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Mayor Eric Adams, who governs a city of nearly nine million people, including the world’s largest Jewish community after Israel, has repeatedly assured pro-Israel rallies that Israel’s ‘fight’ is New York’s fight too.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents has quadrupled in the US since the start of the war, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group.