Israel is the latest target of hacking group Anonymous, which has released a video announcing an Operation against the Middle East country. #OpIsrael will happen next week, on April 7th, and is meant to retaliate for what the group denounces as crimes against humanity in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
"This is a message to the foolish Zionist entities," a masked man states in the beginning of the video, that goes on to show Israel's reelected leader Binyamin Netanyahu and injured Palestinian civilians. "All we see is continuous aggression, bombing, killing and kidnapping of the Palestinian people, as in the last war against Gaza in 2014," the man continues, wearing the Guy Fawkes mask the group adopted years ago.
The group denounces the "silence" of Arab and foreign countries, which is odd, given the scope of the criticism Israel endured last Summer and the hardening of its relationship with the United States, their biggest supporter.
Refusing to sit quiet, Anonymous will respond to Israel and its crimes on Tuesday next week by taking down everything from servers and government websites to banks, IDF websites, and public institutions. "We'll erase you from cyber space as we have every year," the group vows. "Seven April 2015 will be an electronic Holocaust."
The 2:48 minute video also embraces the Palestinian youth, calling it a "symbol of freedom, resistance, and hope." They promise to stand by them and attack Israel until Palestinians have been freed.
"You have shown that you do not respect international law," they say to the Israeli government. No word is said about terrorist group Hamas, which is currently in charge of Palestine and was recently accused of war crimes by Amnesty International; a report by the organisation found the massacre of 11 children in al Shati was actually enacted by a misfired rocket from Hamas.
The pledge to erase Israel from cyberspace was well received on social media, with many Twitter and YouTube users praising Anonymous for their courage. Hundreds of emails and personal data from Israeli personnel and citizens (allegedly) have also been published on Pastebin, a website often used by 'hackitivist' groups such as Anonymous.
The famous group of hackers doesn't side with any particular faction, as it vows to fight for freedom of the press, whistleblowers, women and transgender people, among other values; they have recently launched an Operation to eradicate Islamic State supporters from social media. So what will April 7th bring this time?
