Anne Frank Trust offers platform to speaker who called Jews ‘Zionist scum’

Pro-Hamas Nasima Begum has compared “the Jewish population” to Nazi Germany.

By World Israel News Staff

A UK-based group named after famous teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank has launched an internal investigation over the weekend after the organization came under fire for inviting a guest speaker who compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

Late Saturday night, the Anne Frank Trust announced that it has opened a probe into a workshop hosted by guest speaker Nasima Begum after critics noted Begum’s history of virulent anti-Israel comments and antisemitic social media posts.

“It has been brought to our attention that a freelance arts practitioner we employed in one of our educational workshops last week may have views that are not consistent with our values,” the Trust wrote Saturday night.

“We are launching an investigation into these concerns. We will publish a summary of the findings and any resulting action on our website as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are removing all promotion of the workshop from our social media.”

Last week, the Anne Frank Trust held a “creative storytelling workshop” with Begum, a poet and a Youth Project Coordinator at the Manchester Bangladeshi Women’s Organisation..

“We are excited to welcome performance poet, producer and creative practitioner Nasima Begum to our special workshop this evening,” the Trust tweeted.

“An opportunity for young people on our Youth Empowerment Programme to develop their skills in telling their stories.”

The workshop drew the attention of social media users who pointed out Begum’s history of inflammatory anti-Israel and antisemitic comments.

In 2012, following Israel’s Operation Pillar of Fire against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, Begum offered support for Hamas while accusing Israel of perpetrating a Holocaust in the Gaza Strip.

“Throw the Jew down the well,” Begum tweeted in September 2012.

“Exiling a people from their own land justifies anything. It’s the Holocaust all over again except this time it’s innocent Palestinians and ironically the perpetrators are you Zionist scum,” read another tweet, posted in November of that year.

“You will always remain an illegal state. Death to you Zionist scum.”

“I love Jews. They’re amazing. I hate Zionist, racist, bastard scum like you. Sweet dreams murderer,” Begum posted in December 2012.

A year earlier, Begum made similar accusations, comparing “the Jewish population” to Nazi Germany.

“What’s sad is that the Jewish population faced genocide themselves in Hitler’s Germany but they’ve implemented the same on Palestine for years.”