A message calling for Israeli soldiers to be “burned alive” has been removed from a church’s visitors’ book after a complaint from the Board of Deputies.

The message was left at Hinde Street Methodist Church, where an exhibition on Israeli treatment of Palestinians has been held this week.

It read: “IDF soldiers are the scum of the earth. They are disgusting filthy animals and need to be burned alive”, and was signed “Omana”.

The Board described the entry as outrageous.

A spokesperson said: “We have approached the church. They agreed immediately that it was inappropriate and offensive and have already removed it.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the church said a large number of people had written comments in the book.

He said: "The vast majority of these are positive, and a wide variety of views and perspectives are expressed with thoughtfulness and respect.

"On Thursday evening our attention was drawn to two comments written in the book which were totally unacceptable and abusive, and we immediately redacted them."

The exhibition, called “You cannot pass – Life through a dividing wall”, has attracted accusations of anti-Israel bias for including a life-size replica of an Israeli checkpoint and “eyewitness accounts” of abuses of Palestinian human rights.

In response, the church, in central London, agreed to add a panel supplied by the Zionist Federation explaining why Israel needed border checkpoints.