An Anti-Israel Jewish group whose Pesach publicity stunt backfired after its members failed to notice a series of Hebrew inscriptions on a fabric “Seder plate” were printed back-to-front has apologised for the blunder.

Members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) at the University of Southern California could be forgiven for crying bitter tears of embarrassment after botched attempt at Hebrew drew widespread ridicule.

The campaign group, which has been voicing support for the ongoing Gaza demonstrations on university campuses across America, became subject to widespread mockery when it posted a picture of the canvas Seder plate on social media on Saturday.

Typically, the Seder plate is round and has six sections to hold six of the ritual items that are talked about during the seder: maror – bitter herbs; karpas – usually parsley; chazeret – usually horseradish; beitzah – an egg; zeroah – a shank bone; and charoset – a special, sweet, paste-like substance.

These sections will either be marked out on the plate itself, or the plate will contain six hollows or impressions, one for each of the six items in question.

However on JVP’s version of a Seder plate, emblazoned with the message “Stop starving Gaza” in a central seventh section, the six different items of symbolic significance were identified in Hebrew with the lettering back to front, resulting in nonsense labels that every member present seemingly failed to notice.

Addressing the blunder, the group attributed it to an attempt to act “quickly and provide support for a Seder in the streets outside the locked gates to USC.”

JVP LA, which has 15,000 on Instagram, said it had “incorrectly scribed Hebrew copy onto the Seder plate. We want to recognise the harm this caused and take responsibility.”

JVP LA posted a clarification on Instagram

The group said it was working “internally to practice accountability within our community so this doesn’t happen again.”

It also thanked those who had brought the error to their attention.

The group, which is unambiguously anti-Israel and “rejects Zionist narratives,” also laid its plate with matzah imported from Israel.

Noting the apparent error, one X/Twitter said: “The backwards Hebrew is not the most hilarious part of the whole thing. That honour is reserved to something nobody’s pointed out, namely that the box of matzah is [from US retailer] Trader Joe’s, 100% of which is made…guess where?”