In March a local councillor made racist and Islamophobic comments on this website. The same politician had previously been disciplined by her employer, Kensington & Chelsea Council (RBKC) over similar incidents. But this time, when a fellow councillor alerted council officers to the comments posted on Urban Dandy, RBKC described the remarks as “on the right side” of freedom of speech. What was the difference between the comments made on this site, and the councillor’s previous comments that RBKC deemed to be gravely offensive? We’ll give you one guess….

Comments

Cllr Eva Jedut, representing the Workers Party of Britain, posted comments and links underneath an Urban Dandy article about Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. She wrote that Palestinian Christians and Jews must “free themselves” from Palestinian Muslim governance and that Islamism is a “death cult” that “kills its own children” and “cannot build a peaceful country”.

In her comments, Cllr Jedut blamed the Palestinians and other Arabs for Israel’s crimes, quoting the racist former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir: “Arabs need to love their children first and peace will follow.” Cllr Jedut also claimed that, in Yemen, “kids starve as if in concentration camps”.

To back up her points, Cllr Jedut posted some Twitter links. One was from an anti-Muslim account, “They (Muslims) are most extremist in world History. Everyone should avoid them”.

Two other links were from Zionist accounts featuring videos of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (recipient of over $1 million from Israel lobbyists) blaming the Palestinians for Israel’s crimes.    

RBKC

In a response seen by Urban Dandy, RBKC expressed the view that Cllr Jedut’s comments were “on the right side of the line” of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting freedom of expression, adding that Cllr Jedut’s own identity, the context of the comments and their purpose were all important considerations when making judgment.

Context

Cllr Jedut has kept RBKC officers busy in recent years. Following an anonymous complaint against the councillor about five online posts/comments, RBKC investigated Cllr Jedut in 2023 and found that she had breached of the Councillor Code of Conduct (paragraph 1.04 (x)) which states that councillors should treat all people with respect, not bring the council into disrepute, promote equality, not discriminate against others and promote high standards of leadership. The Investigating Officer concluded that three of Cllr Jedut’s posts had used language that was “intolerant and disrespectful.”

Cllr Jedut’s three incriminating social media posts were anti-Egyptian, anti-Saudi and anti-Muslim.

With the Investigating Officer publishing a report on Cllr Jedut’s conduct, Labour suspended the councillor who served as an independent before joining the Workers Party. In November 2023 at a council Audit & Transparency Committee meeting, RBKC’s Investigating Officer stated that Cllr Jedut had brought the council into disrepute and had failed to champion the needs of the whole community. The committee endorsed this view and agreed to formally censure Cllr Jedut, barring her from sitting on committees, ordering her to take bespoke training on “social media, equalities and the role and responsibilities of a Councillor” and recommending that she undergo counselling to be provided free of charge by RBKC.

Already the subject of complaints over her online output in 2022, Cllr Jedut refused to do the council’s prescribed training and therapy.

This year, when three complaints were made by seven council staff members against Cllr Jedut regarding her behaviour, she again did not engage with investigations. RBKC censured Jedut at their April Full Council meeting, the strongest and most formal disapproval that a local authority can impose on an elected politician. “With a heavy heart” Cllr Gerard Hargreaves proposed the censure. Cllr Mary Weale waxed lyrical about the “special sauce of democracy…mutual respect, understanding and tolerance” and the Principal Solicitor who had investigated the complaints inspired a round of applause in the chamber when the punishment was handed down.

Reality

But there is an apparent exception to the happy clappy unity at Kensington Town Hall, a very specific exception related to a tiny country thousands of miles away that enjoys a surreal level of devotion from the British establishment.

While RBKC believes that Cllr Jedut’s anti-Egyptian, anti-Saudi and anti-Muslim comments brought the council into “disrepute,” finding them “intolerant and disrespectful” and worthy of censure, they actually support her more recent anti-Palestinian comments, made in the context of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, claiming they are “permissible” and “on the right side of the line” regarding free speech.

Who or what is motivating RBKC to be so assiduously defensive of Zionism in the context of a genocide carried out in the name of ethnic and religious supremacy and causing so much trauma to residents, including in the north of the borough? RBKC’s approach is incompatible with their “change” mantra, but then that’s nothing new…..

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Redoubling their efforts

The above example shows the difference between RBKC-style “change” and change. “Change” is a lot of talk but no action that would cost the council anything. Actual change requires a willingness to risk losing something or feeling uncomfortable for a few minutes as you take a stand to defend your values.

In March the council updated its Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Statement of Intent, saying that the Grenfell fire, BLM and Covid “have rightly driven the Council to redouble our efforts to tackle inequality.”

What does this mean in RBKC’s reality? It means they will tell the public anything, including that their investments in weapons and tech enabling Israel’s genocide constitutes “positive change through engagement.”

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Disturbing

At their January 2021 full council meeting RBKC offered “an unreserved apology to the North Kensington community” for its role in the institutional racism detailed in the Tutu Foundation’s scathing report on the Westway Trust. The Tutu report was just “the beginning” of RBKC changing its ways, said Council Leader Elizabeth Campbell.

Cllr Anne Cyron said there had been “a disturbing history of racism and deprivation” in North Kensington.

Deputy Leader of the council and king of empty platitudes Kim Taylor-Smith (pictured above) said that RBKC “acknowledges the part it has played in the Tutu findings.”

RCKC’s Governance Administrator Catherine Lomas noted that, as the meeting was held on Holocaust Memorial Day, it was important to “remember that the ultimate expression of racism is genocide.”

Nobody voiced any disagreement. They virtue signalled because there was zero cost attached to doing so. But when there is an actual genocide taking place in the world…..

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Pariah

RBKC offers minimal new processes, maximal fanfare, it’s been the pattern for eight years. The media and the government didn’t need to be persuaded to look away from North Kensington.

This council is amoral, institutionally void of empathy. Contrast its posturing over Cllr Jedut – their “heavy heart” and their “secret sauce” – with their weasel words when journalists exposed the Mayor of RBKC’s 2022 racism. 

What was Daid Lindsay’s punishment? To stand down in 2026, as a rich old man. They protected him by pretending it was about Grenfell, not racism. Lindsay was not a cabinet member when decisions were made that proved deadly. If he has been made to time travel into 2026 and resign, why do Cllrs Campbell, Hargreaves and Faulks, cabinet members in 2017, remain in place? The council has refused to answer any questions over this because answering would only further expose their cowardice and dishonesty.

Unlike Cllr Lindsay, who performed his mayoral duties in a mealy-mouthed way – we have heard multiple reports of him making offensive remarks to those running charities and community organisations – Cllr Jedut is a hardworking politician who, when attending to her casework, does not discriminate. Unlike any Tory or Labour councillor, Cllr Jedut voted for Cllr Mona Ahmed’s Ceasefire & Divestment motion. Yet she’s the pariah, except when she must be defended, for Israel, of course…

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The lack of real change at RBKC post-Grenfell is a profanity. Hiding behind their propaganda, platitudes and tokenism, they use their Grenfell Tower ignominy to push their agenda of gentrification and class war in more nuanced and effective ways. It is unforgivable and if you see any of them at the silent walk on Saturday you should feel free to break the silence and tell them that…

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by Tom Charles @tomhcharles @urbandandyldn