University of Texas at Austin stabbing

On February 4, 2024, a stabbing attack occurred on the grounds of the University of Texas at Austin, perpetrated by 36-year-old Bert James Baker against a 23-year-old Palestinian-American student who attended a pro-Palestinian protest.

Prelude
Anti-Palestinianism was a rising sentiment during the Israel-Hamas war all over the world, including the United States. This has caused heightening tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinians which sometimes leads to violent events to occur. Even before this attack, many anti-Palestinian hate crimes occurred with one of them being the shooting of three Palestinian-American men wearing Palestinian keffiyehs in Burlington, Vermont.

Attack
During a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas at Austin, Baker attacked a man inside the truck who was sitting in the passenger side of a car with his friend by dragging him out of the vehicle and put him to the ground after attempting to rip off a pro-Palestinian symbol from the truck that Doar was in and calling the group a racial slur. During this scuffle, the man's friend, 23-year-old Zacharia Doar attempted to help him but was stabbed while attempting to intervene. Doar was taken into the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries but, according to his father, was still in immense pain.

Reactions and aftermath
Police arrested Baker after the attack and Austin police stated that the attack was "bias-motivated" and would be investigated and treated as a hate crime. A month later was indicted by a grand jury on an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge but wasn't charged with any additional hate crime charge.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council stated that they were concerned with the rising Islamophobia and anti-Palestinianism after the attack stating that they were deeply concerned.

The Council on American–Islamic Relations stated that they condemn the attack strongly and that people who perpetrate these crimes should be "prosecuted to the full extent of the law".