Jerusalem: The flamboyant wife of Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom published an "inappropriate joke" about US President Barack Obama on her Twitter account, only to later delete it and apologise.

"Do u know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak," Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes wrote to her 74,400 followers.

Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom and his wife Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes. Credit:AFP

Online shock, condemnation and accusations of racism later led her to delete the incriminating tweet.

"I apologise, that was a stupid joke somebody told me," she wrote on her @JudyMozes Twitter account in English.