VIDEO: Daughter believes attack on father in Washington was hate crime

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Central Piedmont Community College instructor was attacked in Washington, D.C., Sunday.

Yosef Steynovitz, 32, was charged with assault with significant bodily injury and Rami Lubranicki, 59, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon in connection to the case.

The attack that was recorded on video shows Kamal Nayfeh getting punched to the ground by the men. He was then kicked and beaten with a flagpole.

Click to watch raw video of the attack.

The man’s daughter, Danya Nayfeh, was feet away from the assault.

"I put my hand on his shoulder and I could see his whole eye was swollen, and bloody, and busted,” she said. “I just started screaming, ‘Who did this? Who did this?"

Members of a group protesting outside an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference attacked Kamal Nayfeh because he is Palestinian, the daughter said.

"He just calmly said, ‘No I'm Palestinian,'” Danya Nayfeh said.

Police intervened but she said she had to confront the assailants before anyone was arrested.

“I asked him directly, ‘Did you hit my Dad?’ and this guy told me with a police officer standing beside me, ‘Yes I hit your dad, and I hope he learned a lesson,’” Danya Nayfeh said.

Two men were arrested and the Nayfeh family believes it was a hate crime.

“It was such an unusual level of brutality, when you see them swarm around him,” his daughter said. “He's 55-years-old, and he's on the ground.”

“All what I was thinking is, ‘Is this happening to me? Oh my God, I can't believe it,” Kamal Nayfeh said. “I feel hits from everywhere, and I fell down and I can feel the kicks everywhere on my body.”

He had stitches where it left a scar, and his back is still in pain.

“The only thing I told them was I am a Palestinian,” he said. “They didn't know anything about me.”

Police are investigating whether or not this is a hate crime.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

Cox Media Group