Jerusalem, Aug. 27 : The Palestinian Authority''s chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, has said there was no evidence to back up claims that Jews had ever lived in Jerusalem or that the temple ever existed.

Tamimi claimed that Israeli archeologists had "admitted" that Jerusalem was never inhabited by Jews, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Tamimi''s announcement came in response to statements made earlier this week by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who said that Jerusalem "is not a settlement," and that "the Jews built it 3,000 years ago."

"Netanyahu''s claims are baseless and untrue," said Tamimi, the highest religious authority in the PA. "Jerusalem is an Arab and Islamic city and it always has been so."

Tamimi claimed that all excavation work conducted by Israel after 1967 have "failed to prove that Jews had a history or presence in Jerusalem or that their ostensible temple had ever existed."

He condemned Netanyahu and "all Jewish rabbis and extremist organizations" as liars because of their assertion that Jerusalem was a Jewish city. (ANI)