The Wall Street oil analyst who was fired after he went viral for telling a Jewish American to “go back to your country” and covering up posters of Israeli hostages issued an apology on Friday.

In a statement issued through a New York City public relations firm called Reputation Doctor LLC, Kurush Mistry and his partner, Shailja Gupta, wrote, “Our behavior was simply unacceptable, and we are ashamed of our actions and words.”

They continued, “We fully acknowledge the pain of the Jewish people in the US, in Israel, and globally, and we regret that our actions added to that pain.”

But they also backed the intentions behind their actions, mentioning they “never supported Hamas” and that their “goal was to emphasize the plight of Palestinian men, women, and children who are dying and suffering in Gaza.”

In the viral video, a Jewish American man asked Mistry and Gupta if they were proud of themselves for placing a sign reading, “Israel is an apartheid state and commits genocide,” over posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Mistry responded, “Go back to your country,” while Gupta later told the man that Jewish people are “rapists.”

In their statement, Mistry and Gupta admitted that their way of protesting was “misguided and thoughtless” and apologized that their “badly-worded poster was construed to support violence.”

Mike Paul, a spokesperson for the couple, told the New York Post that Mistry and Gupta have since had to report many “threats of violence” to local police.