The stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Austin this week meets the definition of a hate crime, police said.
Bert James Baker, 36, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after the Sunday attack on 23-year-old Zacharia Doar near the University of Texas campus.
“The facts of the case meet the definition of a Hate Crime,” police said in a statement Wednesday evening after the department’s Hate Crimes Review Committee looked at the case. The decision on whether to prosecute the case as a hate crime will be made by the Travis County district attorney’s office, officials said.
The stabbing is the latest incident in a spate of violence appearing to target Palestinian Americans across the country, as the conflict in the Middle East raises tensions in the United States and stokes fears for the safety of Jewish, Muslim and Arab Americans.
According to an arrest affidavit seen by the Associated Press, Baker rode up to a truck that Doar and three others were in after a pro-Palestinian protest, opened the doors and yelled racial slurs at them. After a fight ensued, Baker pulled out a knife and stabbed Doar in the rib, the AP reported, citing the affidavit. Doar was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Baker was taken to the Travis County Jail and held on a $100,000 bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group in contact with Doar’s family, alleged in a statement that before the fight, Baker attempted to rip a “Free Palestine” kaffiyeh scarf off the vehicle. The kaffiyeh is a traditional Arab headdress that has come to symbolize solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Doar, who has a 5-month-old baby, remains “in agony,” his father said during a news conference held by CAIR on Tuesday.
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“Thank God that my son is safe. This is something I’ve learned to say from the people of Gaza,” Nizar Doar said. He called for a cease-fire in Gaza and an “end to this madness.”
Share this articleShare“This hate that is going around needs to stop,” he said.
“The entire Austin Muslim community stands in solidarity with these young members of our community, who appear to be the latest victims of a surge in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate across our nation,” said Fayyaz Shah, board chair of CAIR’s Austin chapter.
After police said the stabbing met the definition of a hate crime, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson issued a statement condemning “the horrible rise in hate-motivated incidents everywhere — including in Austin.”
“As our community grapples with this hate crime and our reaction to it,” he continued, “we should all feel anger and pain, and we should all be addressing our anger and pain by coming together and fighting division.”
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Hate crimes targeting Arabs, Muslims and Jews have surged in the United States and worldwide since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 240 others hostage. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed at least 27,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In the United States, CAIR said, the Middle East conflict has contributed to a “wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate.” Last month, the group said it received 3,578 complaints of bias and discrimination from October through December, representing a 178 percent increase from the same period in 2022.
Some of the most violent examples of hate-motivated attacks against Palestinian Americans have reverberated widely across the country. In Plainfield, Ill., a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death by his family’s landlord on Oct. 14 in an attack that police said appeared motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment related to the Middle East conflict.
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In November, three young Palestinian men were shot, and one was paralyzed from the chest down, in Burlington, Vt. Authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said all three victims were wearing kaffiyehs at the time of the attack.
In the wake of violence in the Middle East, Jewish Americans have similarly reported a spike in antisemitic incidents across the country — many of them centered on college campuses. Last month, a survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that “classical fascist” antisemitic views were widespread in the United States, particularly among younger Americans.
“We have definitely seen an uptick in threats across the country. It is focused on Jewish people and people from the Muslim community,” Robert J. Contee III, the FBI’s assistant director of partner engagement, told The Post in October. “We have to be forward-leaning with communicating with our partners and making sure that things don’t slip through the cracks.”
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