Supporters of the jihadist terror organization Hamas hacked and defaced the website of a Bnei Akiva yeshiva high school in Haifa this week, on the eve of the start of the school year. It was not the first hack attributed to this group of hackers. Students from the Pirchei Aharon Yeshiva who were hoping to get some information about the start of classes this week were surprised to find Hamas cyber-graffiti on their school's website. The hackers, calling themselves "Makkah Boys", uploaded images of masked Hamas terrorists, a ritualistic Israeli flag-burning and the Hamas emblem. In addition, they inserted a picture of IDF soldiers with the caption, "Go to Hell dogs." The English-language text inserted by the hackers was headlined "Allahu Akbar" - "Allah is greatest" - the Islamic rallying cry. After boasting "Hacked by Makkah Boys" the defacement includes the text, "We more dangerous than army" under a picture of three masked jihadists. The picture properties identify them in Arabic as "members of the Al-Kassam Brigades". The Makkah Boys appear to have been active hacking into various websites since at least late last year. Also targeted by these cyber-jihadists in the past were an Israeli automotive forum and Kibbutz Nir Oz. They also apparently hacked many non-Israeli and non-Jewish sites, although they uploaded similar anti-Israel and pro-Hamas symbols and pictures. Yossi Ben-Ami, the yeshiva's director, said that "this is not the first time the website has been hacked" by supporters of the jihad against Israel. "It seems the yeshiva is a preferred target of attack on their part." The Pirchei Aharon Yeshiva, part of the religious-Zionist Bnei Akiva network of educational institutions, was founded in 1960. It was the very first yeshiva high school to be incorporated as part of the city's public school system, which eventually became the model for municipal collaboration with Bnei Akiva in other cities nationwide. The yeshiva has an American connection, as well, as it is named after a well-known two-volume halachic work written by Rabbi Ahron Dovid Burack (1892-1960), who was dean of the rabbinical seminary affiliated with New York's Yeshiva University.
