Britian’s flagship Jewish newspaper Web site attacked by Turkish-speaking hackers

London-based Jewish newspaper attacked by hackers

LONDON — Turkish hackers attacked the Web site of Britain’s flagship Jewish newspaper, replacing the main page with a Palestinian flag and anti-Semitic writings, the paper’s editor said Monday.

The Web site for the Jewish Chronicle — the world’s oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper — was defaced for a “couple of hours” on Sunday, editor Stephen Pollard said Monday.

“It did no damage, as far as we can tell,” he said. The site was back online by midday Monday.

The hijacked version of the site cached by Google shows a large Palestinian flag against a black background. In a message posted in English and Turkish, a group calling itself the “Palestinian Mujaheeds” quotes from the Quran and attacks Jews in anti-Semitic terms.

The paper said “early indications” were that the cyberattack’s perpetrator or perpetrators were operating from a computer in Turkey. It comes a week after the eruption of a damaging diplomatic feud between Israel and Turkey.

Ankara was outraged when Israel summoned its ambassador to express anger over a Turkish television drama that depicts Israeli agents kidnapping children and shooting old men. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, denied the ambassador a handshake and forced him to sit on a low sofa as the cameras rolled.

Israel has since apologized for the incident, which threatened to poison relations between the traditional allies.

Asked if he thought the hacking incident was related to the spat, Pollard said: “It’s a conclusion one could draw. I don’t want to speculate.”

The Chronicle, founded in 1841, has a weekly circulation of about 30,000.

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