Anti-Israel vicar gets airtime on ABC this Passover despite linking Jewish state to 9/11
Last week was Passover, so the ABC decided to interview this bloke ... Host David Rutledge speaking on RN Breakfast, Good Friday:
Dr Stephen Sizer: former Anglican vicar, conservative evangelical and, depending to who you ask, thoughtful and sympathetic friend to the Jewish people or dangerous anti-Semite.
Sizer is known best in his home country for a very controversial Facebook post. BBC News website, January 30, 2015:
The Church of England is investigating a vicar accused of posting an article on Facebook blaming Israel for the 9/11 attacks in the US.
The ABC’s RN Breakfast, Friday:
Rutledge: I accept that you’re not an anti-Semite but do you accept that you sail pretty close to the wind ...
Sizer: (sighs)
Sizer’s comments on an article he shared titled “9/11 Israel did it”, Facebook, January 29, 2015:
Is this (the article he shared) anti-Semitic? It raises so many questions.
The Church of England banned Sizer from social media for this post. Bishop of Guildford Andrew Watson, February 9, 2015:
It is my view that Stephen’s strong but increasingly undisciplined commitment to an anti-Zionist agenda has become a liability to his own ministry and that of the wider Church.
Aunty did bring up Sizer’s 9/11 conspiracy theories. His response on RN Breakfast, continued:
With hindsight, I wish I probably hadn’t put a hyperlink to an article about 9/11. The particular article was a list of Israelis that had benefited from 9/11. I simply put it out there and said, “This is serious, it has to be considered.”
But it’s not Sizer’s only run-in with anti-Semitism accusations. Britain’s Telegraph, October 4, 2016:
Jewish leaders have accused an Anglican Vicar from Surrey of supporting an “anti-Semitic hate-fest” by speaking at a conference in Iran at which claims of “Zionist” involvement in 9/11 were aired.
Sizer’s not sorry for that one. The ex-vicar on RN Breakfast, Friday:
I’ve been to Iran several times ... none of the speakers were criticised for being anti-Semitic.
The conference wasn’t criticised for promoting hatred towards Jews? Jerusalem Post, October 21, 2014:
Iranian-run Press TV has described the conference as intending to “unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over the US and EU politics”, with one session devoted to examining “Mossad’s role in the 9/11 Coup d’Etat”, and another discussing “9/11 and the Holocaust as pro-Zionist ‘Public myths’ ”.
T he Church of England has since cut ties with Sizer. A statement from Bishop Watson, March 10 last year:
I am very disappointed by Dr Sizer’s actions (online) ... I have required him to cease all preaching, teaching and leading of services with immediate effect.
Aussie Jewish groups are appalled. The Anti-Defamation Commission’s Dvir Abramovich, yesterday:
The ABC and the producers of this show have crossed the line ... Taxpayer dollars should not have been used to allow such a figure to appear on a respectable national program.
The ABC should think twice before giving this anti-Semite any airtime. Sizer on RN Breakfast, continued:
I don’t relish being accused of anti-Semitism ... it bothers me when people reach conclusions.