The recent stabbing of a 23-year-old Palestinian American in Texas meets the standard for a hate crime, police said Wednesday.

The Austin Police Department arrested Bert James Baker, 36, on Sunday after he attacked Zacharia Doar, 23, who was returning from a pro-Palestinian protest on Sunday near the University of Texas at Austin. In an update, police said their Hate Crimes Review Committee determined the evidence “meets the definition of a hate crime.”

It will be up to the Travis County District Attorney’s office to bring hate crime charges against Baker, according to police. The office said Wednesday they are in the process of getting evidence from police and “look forward to working with them.”

Doar and three other Muslim Americans were riding a truck that displayed a keffiyeh scarf with “Free Palestine” written on it after attending a pro-Palestinian protest, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Baker rode up to the truck on a bicycle and opened the tailgate and doors while yelling racial slurs, a police affidavit obtained by the Associated Press said. The passengers exited the truck and approached Baker, who then allegedly punched Doar in the shoulders, prompting a fight.

Baker then reportedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Doar in the rib. Authorities arrived and discovered Doar with non-life-threatening injuries. He was transferred to a local hospital where he underwent surgery and is now home recovering, according to CAIR.

Baker remains in Travis County Jail on a $100,000 bond. Jail records do not list an attorney for him.

Nizar Doar, the victim’s father, said at a news conference Tuesday his son blamed the attack on President Joe Biden and his refusal to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

“He said, ‘Mr. President, Mr. Joe Biden, I blame you,’” Nizar Doar said. “‘I blame you for what happened to me. If you would have called for a ceasefire three months ago, this would not have happened.’”

CAIR described the attack as “the latest in a surge of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza,”

“The problem is that you cannot dehumanize Palestinians and Muslims in Gaza, without also creating danger for Muslims and Palestinians here in America,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, Deputy Executive Director at CAIR said. “The world is not isolated. So the most important thing that needs to happen is for the genocide in Gaza to end.”

The Muslim civil rights group revealed in January it received a record number of complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate in the last three months of 2023. The 3,578 complaints make up almost half of the complaints submitted for the entire year and represent a 178 percent increase since 2022, with hate crimes ranking number two among the top three categories of complaints.

In November, CAIR released data showing reports of bias and requests for help increased a staggering 216 percent in the month following Oct. 7. In exactly four weeks, a total of 1,283 requests for help and reports of bias were submitted directly to the organization.

That month, Jason J. Eaton shot and seriously injured three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont, while they were walking to Thanksgiving dinner. In October, a landlord in Illinoiswas accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy and wounding his mother. Police charged Joseph Czuba with a hate crime after relatives said he singled out the victims because of their faith.

Corey Saylor, director of research and advocacy at CAIR, said the data represented the largest wave of Islamophobic and anti-Arab bias the organization has recorded since Donald Trump called for a Muslim Ban in 2015.