The Times has rejected a pro-Israel advertisement which carries a denunciation of Hamas by Shoah survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, co-producer of the advert - headlined "Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. Now it is Hamas's turn" - said he was shocked at the newspaper's decision to refuse it.

In the text, Professor Wiesel says: "In my own lifetime, I have seen Jewish children thrown into the fire. And now I have seen Muslim children used as human shields, in both cases, by worshippers of death cults…"

Rabbi Boteach, a former Times Preacher of the Year, said his campaign had been prepared to pay £35,000 for a full-page slot.

He said that as Israel fights for its very existence, the "infamously skewed" British media refuses an advert accepted by major papers, including The Times's sister publication, the Wall Street Journal.

A spokesman for the newspaper responded: "We reserve the right to reject advertisements."