Antisemitism campaigners applaud ARB professional conduct verdict

Responding to the board’s recent action against Peter Kellow, Stephen Silverman, director of investigations and enforcement at the prominent charity, called on other professional bodies to show ‘zero tolerance’ to such communications.

The RIBA has now confirmed it will be launching its own investigation into Kellow’s actions following correspondence with its former president Ben Derbyshire, who was alerted to the social media posts during his term of office.

Kellow’s Facebook post included the suggestion that Jews and Sunni Muslims be ‘banned’ from positions of power.

Silverman told the AJ: ‘We applaud the Architects Registration Board for removing the respondent from the register.

‘The panel was absolutely right to find that his suggestions that all Jews should have to join a register or be excluded from holding public office – notions reminiscent of past eras that we all hope have been confined to the dustbin of history – were discriminatory and offensive and damage the reputation of the profession.

‘We call on other professional bodies to follow the ARB in showing zero tolerance for this sort of antisemitic propaganda.’

Derbyshire said: ‘Peter Kellow’s posts (there are more) are racist, antisemitic, islamophobic, holocaust-denying and deeply offensive.

‘The profession of architecture needs to be more diverse and to express empathy and respect to everyone in society that it seeks to serve. I support the ARB’s move to erase his name from the register because his statements offend Jews, Muslims and many more, including me.

‘I am happy that RIBA tightened up the Code of Conduct for our members and I trust that his conduct will be tested against the standards expected for respect of minorities – see Code of Conduct 2019 section 3.4.’

Kellow, who has been told by the ARB that he cannot reapply to the register for another two years, has already said he intends to appeal against its judgement.

In a press statement he accused the board of behaving like ‘Orwell’s thought police’.

He said: '[The] ARB in this case [has] sought to extend professional conduct to include any statement an architect might make on any subject concerning any hypothetical subject in any hypothetical scenario. So the architect’s political views now become a matter of professional conduct.’

Kellow said he would not be commenting further on the RIBA investigation.