Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef is the subject of sharp criticism today, following his last weekly sermon when he compared black people to monkeys as he explained the blessing of blooming trees during the Hebrew month of Nisan.

Footage of his sermon was posted by the Israeli news site Ynet. In the video, the rabbi talks about black people in the streets of America whose parents are white, then calls the black son of a white couple a monkey. He also uses the Hebrew word "kushi" to describe black people, which is widely considered a racial slur in Israel.