A pro-Palestinian student group at NYU is blaming Israel for the recent killings of black men by police in America that has sparked a national outrage.

The New York University (NYU) chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) blamed Israel for the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. The two black men were shot by police in two separate incidents last week, leading to public outrage and mass rallies around the country led by the group, Black Lives Matter. The SJP posted on their Facebook page a claim that “the same forces behind the genocide of black people in America are behind the genocide of Palestinians”.

Tablet Magazine noted the incongruity of the SJP claims of genocide, since the population of Palestinians in Israel has grown exponentially since the creation of the Jewish State. Similarly, despite the SJP claims, the black population in America has also continued to rise.

Ths SJP subsequently posted an explanation of their controversial post, stating that they were not claiming the existence of an Israeli conspiracy in league with American police to kill black people. They also admitted that Israeli did not “literally kill either of these men”. They did, however, accuse both Israel and the American police of “white supremacist racism”.

This was not the first time SJP at that university blamed Israel for domestic difficulties. Last November, during student protests for tuition-free public college, student debt cancellation, and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers, the SJP sent out a message that the university’s “Zionist administration” was to blame for high tuition costs. The CUNY Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs condemned the SJP’s statement as being “thinly veiled anti-Semitism”.

Protests were held all over America in response to the two shootings. At a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas on Thursday night, a lone gunman killed 5 policemen.