"we are ashamed of our actions and words."
A US Indian couple who hurled anti-Semitic abuse towards a Jewish man while covering up posters of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas have issued an apology.
A video showed Kurush Mistry and Shailja Gupta abusing the person filming.
This included telling the man to “go back to your country”.
Meanwhile, they were sticking up slogans reading “Israel is an Apartheid State and Commits Genocide” and “Occupiers Face Consequences”.
They subsequently received backlash for the confrontation in Manhattan.
Mistry ended up losing his job at Freepoint Commodities.
The couple have now written a grovelling apology, admitting their actions were “misguided and thoughtless”.
They wrote: “After taking time to contemplate and reflect on our recent actions, we want to send our sincerest apologies to the Jewish gentleman we yelled at, gestured to, and said unkind things to, as well as apologise to the global Jewish community for our recent actions in NYC.
“Our behaviour was simply unacceptable and we are ashamed of our actions and words.
“We hope to have the opportunity in the near future to speak to the gentleman personally and apologise directly to him.”
The couple claimed they “never supported Hamas” and have “always believed it is a terrorist organisation”.
The couple said it was their “first time engaging in civic protest” and their intention was “to emphasise the plight of Palestinian men, women and children, who are also dying and suffering in Gaza”.
Their apology continued: “Our way of doing so was misguided and thoughtless.
“For example, our badly worded poster was construed to support violence, and we apologize profusely for that.
“We fully acknowledge the pain of the Jewish people in the US, in Israel and globally, and we regret that our actions added to that pain.”
Following the anti-Semitic abuse, Mistry and Gupta said they received violent threats.
They said: “We share this knowledge not for sympathy, but to factually tell the whole truth.
“We have learned a valuable lesson about the need to love all as brothers and sisters instead of highlighting disagreements and causing more pain.
“We unequivocally denounce anti-Semitism, violence, and terrorism in every form.”
Mistry and Gupta finished by apologising again.
They added: “Again, we apologise from the bottom of our hearts to all those we have offended and caused pain to, especially the global Jewish community, our fellow Americans, and our fellow Indians.
“We hope that by our future actions and words we will slowly earn back your trust in our good intentions for all humanity, and that you can hopefully see that we are more than our worst actions and mistakes.”
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