Palestinian man brutally attacked outside AIPAC

A 55 year-old American-Palestinian professor was beaten up outside the AIPAC conference in Washington DC last weekend by members of the “right-wing terrorist group” Jewish Defence League (JDL), Mondoweiss.net reported.

Video footage on social media sites shows Kamal Nayfeh being hit by a mob on who kicked him and used sticks in their attack. Police intervened and rescued the man who was taken to hospital.

Two men have since been arrested. Yosef Steynoitz, 32, was charged with assault and Rami Lubranicki, 59, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, D.C. police said.

Read: Incitement and oblivion in Netanyahu’s AIPAC speech

The father of four had been out with his daughter who lives in the US capital on 26 March when the attack took place.

“To be honest with you, I was completely unaware. I didn’t know who they were. I was trying to make out what the chants were. I saw the Israeli flag, I saw the yellow flags, but I didn’t know what they were,” Nayfeh told Mondoweiss.

I fell down on the ground and I felt people hitting me and kicking me. And then the police got me [out]. It was all so fast

“The outcome of this, what I really hope for, I don’t mind people protesting or using their speech, but they can’t use physical stuff, people should be able to walk around and be by-passers on the street. They shouldn’t be hurt [for this],” said Nayfeh.

An American citizen, Nayfeh was born in Kuwait and moved to the US in 1986.