Methodist church closes doors to Jackie Walker
THE ORGANISERS of a meeting scheduled to take place in a local Methodist church were forced to change venue after objections to Jackie Walker, the suspended Labour activist, appearing as a speaker.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign fundraising event was due to take place at the Chapel Field Methodist Church in Norwich but moved to the nearby Quakers’ Friends Meeting House after a complaint by the Board of Deputies about the appearance of Ms Walker.
Methodist Church officials were said to be unaware that Ms Walker would be speaking when it took the booking.
“We have sincerely apologised to the Orthodox synagogue near our church,” a source said. “We had no idea this was going to happen.”
It is understood the church will “never” accept a booking from Norwich PSC again.
Ms Walker is under investigation by the Labour Party for comments she made in September about Holocaust Memorial Day.
T he c o nt ro v e r s i a l figure was removed as vice-chair of the hard-left Momentum group last month after she was sus- pendedbythepartyforthesecondtime this year over claims of antisemitism. In a statement released last Friday before the change of venue was announced,MarievanderZyl,Boardvicepresident,calledonChapelFieldMethodist Church “to reconsider the booking”. The meeting at the Friends Meeting Housewasattendedbyaround100supporters. As well as local Norwich PSC activists, there were also members of local Muslim group The Neesa Project and several Quakers in attendance. A local PSC group leader told the meeting that “the Methodist Church werebombardedbysomeJewishpeople —someZionistswhoareconnectedwith the Board of Deputies of British Jews. “We thought we were going have to call the whole thing off but we reckoned without our friends the Quakers.” Ms Walker addressed the crowd and claimed she was a victim of Zionist “black ops”. A spokesman for the Methodist Church said: “This event was not organised by Chapel Field Methodist Church but by a third party organisation hiring a hall. However, following discussions with a number of groups, it was decided that this event is not in the interest of good community relations and the booking was cancelled.” Norwich PSC has not responded to a request for comment.