Protesters gather at the scene where George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was pinned down by a police officer kneeling on his neck before later dying in hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 26, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Eric Miller.

An attempt this week by the Democratic Socialists of America’s BDS national working group to tie Israel to recent incidents of US police violence against minorities has sparked outrage.

Referring to unrest on the streets of Minneapolis following the recent police killing of an unarmed African-American man, George Floyd, the group tweeted, “The police violence happening tonight in Minneapolis is straight out of the IDF playbook,” adding, “US cops train in Israel.”

“The racist and brutal tactics used by Israeli military and US cops are purposefully one and the same,” it charged, citing no evidence.

“So-called ‘less lethal’ weapons like tear gas are manufactured in the US and sold to Israel where they are tested and used on Palestinians,” the group claimed, before going on to say, “Surveillance tech is made in Israel & brought to the US to invade the privacy of Black, brown, Muslim, poor, and otherwise marginalized people.”

“This is the ‘special relationship’ between Israel and the United States,” it continued.

The police violence happening tonight in Minneapolis is straight out of the IDF playbook.

How many times have we seen uprisings in Gaza met w/ a storm of tear gas?

How many times are Palestinians in the West Bank doused w/ skunk water during a protest?

US cops train in Israel.

— DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity??? (@DSA_Palestine) May 27, 2020

The DSA group’s statements were part of an ongoing organized campaign called “Deadly Exchange,” which posits that racist police tactics in the US are Israel’s fault.

Critics say that such claims are a blood libel and responsible for inciting incidents of antisemitic violence.

In response to the DSA group’s tweets, B’nai B’rith International told The Algemeiner, “This is a case of exploiting the tragic and tense situation in Minneapolis to advance the motives of the BDS movement to demean and delegitimize Israel.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper — associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center — said that, similar to previous attempts to exploit such incidents, “non-existent dots were connected” to portray “the Palestinians as people of color fighting white Israel. … We Jews know all about antisemites connecting non-existent dots to denigrate our people.”