DUBAI, April 19: The imam of Holy Ka’aba prayed to God on Friday to “terminate” the Jews and urged Arabs and other Muslims to abandon efforts to make peace with Israel.

“We must say farewell to peace initiatives with these people (Jews),” Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Sudais told worshippers at the Grand Mosque in a sermon, carried live by several Arabic television and radio networks.

He prayed to God to “terminate” the Jews, whom he described as “the scum of humanity... the rats of the world... prophet killers... pigs and monkeys”.

The sermon by Sudais, one of the top imams at the Grand Mosque, was unusually fiery in a country largely seen to follow moderate foreign policy.

Sudais, who ranks high in the Saudi religious heirarchy which allows only senior figures to preach at the Grand Mosque, said Israel was carrying out an war of “ugly annihilation” against the Palestinians.

“When the (Muslim) nation opted for peace to achieve its greater interests they (Jews) did not reciprocate,” he said.

“World leaders, you who claim to be fighting terrorism, what do you call what those people did to Palestinians?” asked Sudais. “Are the aspirations of a billion Muslims to safeguard their sanctities considered terrorism?” he added.

“They (Jews) want to establish a greater Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and they aspire to tear down the Al Aqsa mosque to build their so-called temple on its ruins,” he said.

He urged Muslim leaders to “rescue Palestine before it is lost.”—AFP