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Derek Jones was on the ferry home to Manly with his wife when he saw the video of himself that would become global news. He was wearing a ripped white business shirt and nursing two broken ribs.

The viral video, shot a few hours earlier, showed Jones being grabbed by a police officer at a rally against the visiting Israeli president, Isaac Herzog. Jones has his hands in the air as two police officers repeatedly punch him.

The 56-year-old, who became known as “white shirt guy”, kept a low profile amid widespread claims of police brutality at the 9 February protest. Until now, he hadn’t revealed himself publicly as the man in the video.

This week, Jones is due to become the first protester to launch legal action in the New South Wales supreme court against police over their conduct at the protest. He plans to file a personal injury claim over what he alleges was an unprovoked assault.

“I was assaulted,” he alleges when speaking from his lawyer’s office. “They didn’t need to behave in the way they did.”

Jones says during the incident near Sydney’s town hall, “my wife was there yelling in horror as the crowd was also wondering what the hell was going on – because they all recognised it was completely unprovoked, unwarranted, excessive, crazy”.

The police conduct was “absolutely mad,” he alleges.

Jones works in finance and had been to one previous pro-Palestine protest. He decided to go to the Herzog rally with his wife because he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for the Australian government to invite the head of a state that a UN commission of inquiry found committed genocide.

His lawyer, Mark Davis of XD Law, says he will also seek a judicial review to try and obtain documents revealing the orders police were following.

“He doesn’t want to just get a settlement – he wants to unpick that,” Davis says. “He wants to know why these … officers suddenly descended on him after.”

Jones’s lawyer also wants to “see those officers charged”. “We think they should be subject to criminal prosecution,” he says.

The NSW government has faced scrutiny over its decision to pass a law, subsequently found to be unconstitutional, before the rally. It effectively banned protesters from marching in the CBD over the summer.

The court’s finding that the law impermissibly burdened the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication has led police to review 26 charges laid against protesters since the Herzog rally.

Jones was not arrested or charged after the alleged assault. However, a young man seen in the video – who Jones says was attempting to help – was charged with hindering police.

‘All of a sudden, I was dragged into that fracas’

Jones met his wife, who is the woman seen in the video behind him wearing a keffiyeh, at the protest after he finished work.

“It was a peaceful protest that we were going to,” he says.

Jones says they were attempting to leave after the speeches when they stopped to watch what was unfolding on George Street.

“We saw down the street, someone pulled out of the crowd and sort of violently thrown to the ground,” he says. “I had no thought that it would come over to our side [of the street].”

“Then, all of a sudden, I was dragged into that fracas and then assaulted,” he alleges.

Jones says there were some words exchanged between the protesters on his side of the street to the effect of: “Why don’t you go and arrest some real criminals?”

He says he may have said something similar, but he doesn’t recall.

He thinks the officer who grabbed hold of him had first attempted to grab a woman next to him, who said something to the police.

“He’s pulling me towards him, and I can’t get away. I’ve got my hands up,” Jones says, referring to the police officer on the bicycle.

“My wife is holding me, trying to pull me back, and that’s actually the most upsetting. I can hear her sort of screaming. As I was being pulled forward, I did reach out to try to not topple over.”

Jones, who became emotional when recalling the incident, alleges another officer then punched him multiple times in his chest. He alleges yet another officer punched him in the face.

Jones’s 18-year-old son saw the viral video on social media before Jones could tell him what had happened. He says his son was watching videos with friends when the footage popped up. His son realised “shit, that’s my dad”.

Jones started to receive messages from family, friends and work colleagues who recognised him.

“I didn’t want to have my video of me being assaulted broadcast all around the world, but that’s happened,” he says.

The premier, Chris Minns, was asked about what happened to Jones in the days after the protest.

“I mean, all the circumstances will, of course, be investigated. Police had body-worn videos on them,” he said at the time.

“It’s important that people not judge the actions of police on 10 or 15-second social media posts.

“When you see the full context, many people will draw the opposite conclusion, and that is that police were repeatedly confronted. People were attempting to breach police lines.”

NSW police said in response to questions about Jones’s allegations that the force was unable to substantiate the identity of the person in the video.

Jones says comments by politicians and public figures “sort of justifying their [police] behaviour and saying that that was in any way appropriate, that’s pretty frustrating, more than frustrating”.

He says his physical injuries, which included a bruised lung and the broken ribs, took about eight to 10 weeks to heal.

“Psychologically, that’s a different story,” he says. “I don’t know how that will play out.”