(JTA) – An Islamist hacker group hit the website of the Venice Jewish community’s library and archive and posted pro-Islamist and pro-Palestinian messages on its home page.
Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, the director of the Renato Maestro Library and Archive, called the hacking incident Monday by the Tunisian Fallaga Team “in effect, a violent and targeted threat, of a type that was clearly anti-Semitic.”
Voghera said the library’s home page had been replaced for “several hours” by a dark screen with English-language slogans and videos inciting Islamist attacks in Tunisia and promoting the “fight for the liberation of Palestine.”
Police are investigating the incident.
Local media reported that the Tunisian Fallaga Team had hacked other non-Jewish Italian websites in recent months. It was unclear if the attack on the Venice Jewish library was related to the major events to mark the 500th anniversary of the institution of the Venice ghetto that are scheduled to kick off on March 29 and last throughout the year.
“It is an act that we condemn with all our force,” Paolo Gnignati, the president of the Venice Jewish community, told local media. “It invites us never to lower our guard.”
