Hacker (illustration)
Hacker (illustration)iStock

JTA - The Times of Israel’s website was hacked by a Turkish group on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.

On Thursday morning, the site’s homepage featured an image of children waving a Turkish flag and a line that apparently vowed to protect “Palestine” and Gaza.

Underneath that was a Quran verse that read “And We shaded you with clouds and sent down to you manna and quails, [saying], “Eat from the good things with which We have provided you.” And they wronged Us not – but they were [only] wronging themselves.” It was written in Turkish, Arabic and English.

The page was signed by the group Akincilar, which hacked multiple Dutch websites earlier this year after Turkey and the Netherlands had a political falling-out in the wake of Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s controversial referendum win.

The Times of Israel is under hacker attack. We're working to restore normal service as soon as possible.

— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) November 2, 2017

Several of the site’s partner publications — such as the Atlanta Jewish Times and the New Jersey Jewish Standard, which are published online through the Times of Israel site — were not affected by the hack. However, the homepage of The New York Jewish Week, one of the Times of Israel’s partners, led to the same Akincilar page on Thursday morning.

Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz told JTA in an email that he could not comment on the incident until it was dealt with fully.

Thursday is the centennial anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the first public statement from the British government that announced it supported the establishment of a Jewish state in then-Palestine.