Wall Street banker is fired after screaming ‘go back to your country’ at Jewish American while he covered up posters pleading for the return of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists

A Wall Street banker has been fired after shouting at a Jewish-American man to “go back to your country” as he covered posters advocating 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 at 68th Street and Riverside Boulevard in New York went viral.

Mistry can be seen sticking the poster on a lamppost with Gupta standing next to him. A man asks him, ‘What’s your name, sir? You must be very proud.’

The couple responds by raising their middle fingers at him.

The spectator continues: ‘You are really proud of yourself.’

Mistry replies, “Very proud.”

While his partner appears to be filming the viewer, Mistry holds up a note that reads: Israel is an apartheid state and is committing genocide.’

Then they lead the man away and say, “Go back to your country.”

He responds by saying, “I’m an American.” Then he notes that he is an American Jew.”

The spectator says: ‘You also want my country not to exist, so where should I go?’ Gupta replies: You don’t want my damn country to exist.’ He asks: ‘Which country is that?’

She answers: ‘Palestine.’

According to his LinkedIn page, Mistry had worked at Freepoint Commodities for nine years.

Mistry can be seen sticking the poster on a lamppost with Gupta standing next to him. A man asks him, ‘What’s your name, sir? You must be very proud.’ The couple responds by raising their middle fingers at him. Gupta then films the spectator on her phone

He previously worked at the banks Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Lehman Brothers.

Shailja Gupta’s official LinkedIn account states that she has spent the past 29 years working as a visual artist, filmmaker and emerging technical strategy consultant.

In a statement after the images 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 person in the video as Mistry and confirmed that he had been fired from Freepoint, the Financial Times said.

Freepoint is involved in the energy, metals and agricultural markets and the company is based in Connecticut.

“We welcome the diversity of views and opinions of our employees, but Freepoint will not tolerate discrimination and hate speech directed against any group,” the company said.

In August, leading American executives and financiers expressed anger at a statement from groups at Harvard University that “held the Israeli regime fully responsible for all the unfolding violence.”

Kurush Mistry and his partner Shailja Gupta

Law firms have withdrawn offers to students over their involvement with groups criticizing Israel over the war and have called on universities to do more to tackle student anti-Semitism.

Academics from some of the country’s leading institutions will meet next week to explore ways to defuse tensions.

New York City, home to between 1.6 and two million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, has been rocked by demonstrations, rallies and vigils in support of Palestinians and Israel since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.

The attack took about 240 people hostage by the terrorist group Hamas and left about 1,200 Israeli dead.

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 11,200 Palestinians – two-thirds of them women and minors – have been killed since the war began.

Mayor Eric Adams, who governs a city of nearly nine million including the world’s largest Jewish community after Israel, has repeatedly assured pro-Israel rallies that Israel’s “struggle” is also New York’s struggle.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the US has quadrupled since the war began.