A Chester church has pulled out of hosting a conference on Palestine featuring talks by two controversial, anti-Jewish activists.

The two-day ‘Palestine: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow’, coordinated by Interfaith for Palestine, was due to be held at St Columba’s Church over Friday and Saturday.

But after being contacted by the North West Friends of Israel, the church decided to cancel the booking.

Gilad Atzmon, whose past statements include "Jewish ideology is driving our planet into a catastrophe" and “I'm not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act”, was due to speak, alongside Revered Stephen Sizer, a vicar who was reprimanded for sharing material suggesting Israel carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Mr Atzmon was set to give a talk called ‘Palestine under the Jewish state’, while Rev Sizer was due to discuss ‘Christian Zionism: Roadmap to Armageddon?’.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Shrewsbury said: “The Diocese of Shrewsbury condemns and opposes antisemitism in all its forms and will not allow such activities on its premises.

“When serious concerns about the nature of this event were brought to our attention appropriate steps were immediately taken.”