Jeremy Corbyn has a predicament.
There is a person he knows, who is his colleague within the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
This person spends most of his professional time talking about Jews, writing about Jews, and professing to be an expert on the theological relationship between God and the Jewish people. One day, this person posts a link to a Holocaust-denying website which wishes Jews to be exterminated.
This person has a long history of recommending the writings of Holocaust deniers, citing Holocaust deniers in his academic work, accepting speaking invitations from Holocaust deniers, and sharing platforms with Holocaust deniers to denounce the Jewish state.
This person also thinks that Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi was tied to the USA by Jewish blood, which apparently rendered the Americans reluctant to stop Gaddafi’s murders. He also thinks it commendable to call for Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine“. He meets with Islamists in Hezbollah and in the Iranian government, who seek the destruction of the Jewish state.
When challenged, this person justifies his actions in theological terms, drawing a parallel between himself and the Suffering Servant.
This person is Reverend Stephen Sizer.
Following Sizer linking to an antisemitic website in December 2011, the Council of Christians and Jews identified Sizer’s web activity as a cause for concern. Sizer and his bishop, insisted that he had deleted the web link, as soon as he was aware of its racist content.
However, Sizer also posted a link in March 2012, to a website called Veterans Today, which dismisses the Holocaust as an “Israeli psy-ops operation”, denies the gas chambers, defends Hitler, sneers at “the Jewish crooks on Wall Street”, publishes pieces by Gilad Atzmon, supports David Duke, and says of the Jews, “they should wholly be burnt in ovens”.
Here some of the sidebar links Sizer has on his own blog as of today:
– If Americans Knew (blood libel writer Alison Weir)
— MEMO (heavily promotes blood libel sheikh Raed Salah)
– Palestine Telegraph (supported the writings of ex-KKK leader David Duke)
Despite criticism, Sizer has no intention of ceasing to promote racist and extremist websites.
As is clear from Sizer’s track record, posting racist web links is one cause for concern regarding his ministry, amongst many.
How do you think Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn responded?
This week, Stephen Sizer has published various letters on his blog, protesting his innocence in all matters relating to antisemitism.
One letter is from the Labour MP for Islington North:
Dear Right Reverend Christopher Hill
I am sorry to hear that problems have arisen, for Reverend Stephen Sizer, at least in part due to a technical oversight in terms of computer links, though I understand that the problem has now been rectified. I hope it was no more complicated than that.
Reverend Stephen Sizer seems to have come under attack by certain individuals intent on discrediting the excellent work that Stephen does in highlighting the injustices of the Palestinian Israeli situation, in particular by his very thorough analysis of “Christian Zionism”. Might I suggest that such criticism is part of a wider pattern of demonising those who dare to stand up and speak out against Zionism, a philosophy that precludes the existence of the state of Palestine?
Your own expertise, wisdom and experience will, I am sure, allow you to appreciate just how much distance exists between anti Semitism, anti Zionism, and anti Israeli government actions for that matter. Overzealous critics find it convenient to conflate them all. Active and well informed individuals such as Reverend Stephen Sizer, withstand a considerable amount of inappropriate criticism. Indeed many MPs and Peers are also attacked.
The internet is a complicated piece of technology and with the best will in the world, imperfect links are made and one would have to spend 8 hours a day “surfing” the net just to be 100% certain one’s views to not become contaminated in any way at all. Even then, connections can inadvertently be made.
I do hope you’ll take the above into consideration when meeting with Reverend Stephen Sizer today, for I do admire the excellent work that he does and personally, I would give no credence at all to any claims that he is anti-Semitic.
With kind regards
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Islington North
Of course, both Sizer and Corbyn are allies of the Blood Libel Sheikh, Raed Salah.
Jeremy Corbyn wants to invite Raed Salah for “tea on the terrace” in Westminster:
How low can Jeremy Corbyn go, before Ed Miliband takes action?
