Make Them Pay for Their Crimes': Hacker Group Anonymous Issues Chilling Warning to Israel Conference

The hacker collective known as Anonymous on Sunday took credit for crashing the website of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the same day it released a chilling video declaring the pro-Israel group its "enemy."

The AIPAC website went down about an hour before President Barack Obama took the stage at organization's annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., around the same time the group's Twitter account said in a post: "Gosh, the AIPAC website sure looks TANGO DOWN to us. Wonder why?"

Several hours later, Anonymous released a video calling for "an occupation of AIPAC and the destruction of their websites."

Watch below (transcript follows):

Citizens of the World.

We are Anonymous.

Just a few weeks ago, we declared our crusade against the government of Israel and all supporting counterparts for their involvement in war propaganda, crimes against humanity, and the systematic genocide and expulsion of minorities. Their crimes have resulted in the displacement of Palestinians who did not commit any crime but defend their homelands. Let's also not forget the U S S Liberty incident where Israel killed 34 American servicemen.

Now, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee wants to lobby for more wars, more destruction, more deaths than they already have committed and unfortunately, our president has decided to defend them for it.

Our government's foreign policy has no sovereignty to America. It's sovereignty is to the state of Israel.

AIPAC is now our enemy.

We're calling for an occupation of AIPAC and the destruction of their websites. Make them pay for their crimes.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We must certainly not forget.

Expect us or perish.

About 200 protesters were on hand Sunday to protest the conference at the Washington Convention Center, some of them identifying themselves as so-called "Occupy AIPAC" members, the Daily Caller reported.

One video posted online appeared to show demonstrators wearing larger-than-life costumes of Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and another pair acting as a Israel Defense Forces soldier and a Palestinian woman at a mock checkpoint.

Occupy AIPAC, described as "a weekend long series of events to put a spotlight on the abusive practices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee," claimed it had more than 400 demonstrators outside while Obama and Israeli President Shimon Peres spoke inside.

"After 10 years of war, the American people need a foreign policy that focuses on diplomacy, not military intervention,” Occupy AIPAC's Medea Benjamin said in a release. “We are rallying to demand that our current leaders not take us down the same path as past leaders did in Iraq.”

As the Free Beacon pointed out last week, cartoons by Carlos Latuff, a Holocaust-denier who placed second in an Iran-backed international Holocaust cartoon competition were featured on Occupy AIPAC's website.

Rae Abileah, an Occupy AIPAC organizer, told the Beacon that Latuff was in no way working for the group and the cartoons posted were only selected because they fit with the group's anti-AIPAC message. The group condemns Holocaust-denial, Abileah said. Latuff's work appears to have been removed.