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Indian couple Kurush Mistry and Shailja Gupta have garnered immense backlash online after their allegedly antisemitic actions went viral on X (formerly Twitter). The duo was recorded reportedly covering up posters of kidnapped Israelis with signs that read, “OCCUPIERS FACE CONSEQUENCES.”
This comes in the backdrop on the ongoing Middle East conflict. At the time of writing this article, the couple had not publicly responded to the controversy.
Trigger Warning: The following article contains antisemitic sentiments. Readers' discretion is advised.
On November 10, X user @MrAndyNgo took to the social networking site to allege that Kurush Mistry and Shailja Gupta were concealing posters of kidnapped Israeli civilians in Manhattan. One of the many posters they plastered above the kidnapped signs read:
“Israel is an apartheid state and commits genocide.”
In the video, the couple is seen allegedly telling a Jewish man recording them to “go back to your country.”
Shailja allegedly went on to call the man an “uneducated prick” after he said that he does not know of Palestine. She also reportedly stated that Jewish people were “r*pists.”
At the time of writing this article, the two-minute-long clip had garnered nearly two million views.
Kurush Mistry and Shailja Gupta are New York residents
According to Kurush Mistry’s official LinkedIn account, he is an oil analyst at Freepoint Commodities. He has been working at the organization for the past nine years. Before joining the company, he worked at Morgan Stanley Capital International, Barclays Capital, and the Lehman Brothers.
Mistry graduated from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad in 2003. He also holds a certificate from The Institute of Chartered Accountants in India. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Madras.
At the time of writing this article, Kurush Mistry's Instagram account was set to private.
According to Shailja Gupta’s official LinkedIn account, she has been working as a visual artist, film maker and emerging tech strategic consultant for the past 29 years. In her bio, she wrote:
“Creative and Marketing professional with twenty years of experience in trans-media design, digital and social media marketing, interactive strategy, ecommerce, franchise building, syndication and merchandising for creative properties.”
She is also the founder of Pocket Box Office, a company which specializes in “merchandising memorabilia,” “vinyl toy manufacturing” and “ai avatars based storytelling.”
She has also worked as the head of marketing for various Bollywood films including Ra. One, Chennai Express, and Singham Returns amongst others.
Gupta has amassed several awards, including the Wharton Social Media Leadership Award, Zee Awards’ Best use of digital media and IO Awards’ Best Marketed Film, according to her official LinkedIn account.
At the time of writing this article, her X account, under the username @Shailja remained inactive.
“Jail. Or deport. Now”: Netizens put Kurush Mistry and Shailja Gupta on blast following antisemitic remarks
Netizens were enraged by the couple’s actions. Many opined that they should be deported and lose their jobs. A few reactions to the viral video read:
This is not the first time a person has taken to tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis. Pace University’s Karl Saad and USC’s Rachel Birney recently came under fire after allegedly ripping down signs of Israelis as well.
