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Wikipedia and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Extended-protected article
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, as of December 2011, per the United Nations OCHA.[1]
See here for a more detailed and updated map.

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been covered extensively on Wikipedia.[2] This coverage has often been criticized for perceived bias. External groups have initiated editing campaigns, and the Israel–Hamas war intensified editing in the topic-area. Wikipedia coverage on the conflict differs significantly between the encyclopedia's language-versions.

History

Banner for WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration, as of December 2008

After the Second Intifada ended, according to journalist Omer Benjakob, "two warring camps" emerged between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine Wikipedia editors. In September 2006, WikiProject Israel was established to improve coverage of Israel-related topics. WikiProject Palestine was created two months later. In 2008, the WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration was set up to reconcile editing efforts, with the project page stating, "In a subject plagued by conflicting historical narratives, we are working to make Wikipedia the conflict's most balanced reference point. Help us build bridges and break down barriers in the world's most intractable conflict."[3]

In 2008, leaked emails from the pro-Israel watchdog Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) that purported to reveal an organised influence campaign on Wikipedia were published by The Electronic Intifada, a pro-Palestinian organisation.[4][3] The leaked emails resulted in at least five editors receiving lifetime bans on Wikipedia.[3]

In 2008, after disputes reached a fever pitch over the Second Intifada and other articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee decided on a set of rules of conduct for editors when editing articles related to the conflict. Editors are required to have made over 500 edits for at least 30 days to edit articles related to the conflict, can only make one revert per day across the entire field, and can be banned from editing related articles. The ruling was reaffirmed and expanded in 2009 and 2015.[3]

In August 2010, two Israeli right-wing groups, the Yesha Council and My Israel, ran a course about Zionist editing on Wikipedia.[5][6] Yesha Council director Naftali Bennett said, "We don't want to change Wikipedia or turn it into a propaganda arm. We just want to show the other side. People think that Israelis are mean, evil people who only want to hurt Arabs all day."[5] In response, Abed A-Nassar, the chairman of the Association of Palestinian Journalists, called on Palestinian institutions to make Wikipedia articles more pro-Palestinian and counter what he called Israel's "public relations war".[7][6]

In 2013, Haaretz reported the indefinite block of an editor who had concealed the fact that he was an employee of right-wing media group NGO Monitor. The editor was reported to have edited English Wikipedia articles on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict "in an allegedly biased manner".[8][9]

In December 2017, after American president Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would be recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Wikipedia followed suit, which sparked a debate between editors. As of that time, the English and Hebrew articles said that Jerusalem was Israel's capital, while the Arabic article said that Israel claimed it as its capital, but it was located in occupied Palestine.[10]

In November 2020, Haaretz reported that the "West Bank bantustans" article comparing Israel's control of the West Bank to the Black-only enclaves in apartheid-era South Africa indicated a possible shift for Wikipedia's consensus on likening Israel to an apartheid regime. Editors noted the fact that the article survived a deletion proposal indicated that events such as the Trump peace plan and Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge to annex parts of the West Bank undermined Israel's talking point that it supported a two-state solution and strived to establish a Palestinian state.[11]

Haaretz journalist Omer Benjakob said in 2020:[11]

Edit wars on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have had a fundamental influence on how Wikipedia addresses contentious issues; for example, the practice of locking articles to public editing and permitting only editors with a username and certain level of Wikipedia experience to contribute. The result has been the emergence of two ideological camps, so-called pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian editors, who have been locked in what some describe as an editorial stalemate.

In February 2021, the Hebrew Wikipedia renamed its version of the article on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, changing "occupation" to "rule".[12]

Israel–Hamas war

Edits on the Hebrew Wikipedia on articles about former Israeli defense officials, including Yoram Cohen, Tamir Hayman, and Amos Yadlin, October 9-10, 2023

The Israel–Hamas war was extensively covered on Wikipedia and other related projects in various languages. This included articles about the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel starting from October 7, 2023, as well as the subsequent Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and the Israeli invasion in the following weeks.[13] Articles related to the war experienced edit warring due to the diversity of narratives from both sides of the conflict.[14][15] For example, in the first week of the war, a Hebrew Wikipedia editor added to articles about former Israeli security officials, but not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and allied politicians, in ways that arguably pointed to these officials' responsibility for Israel's failure to prevent the October 7 attack.[15]

On December 4, 2023, the Wikimedia Foundation issued a statement titled "Wikimedia updates on the crisis in Gaza Strip and Israel", and another statement the next day calling for "an end to measures preventing access to the internet in the Gaza Strip".[16]

Arabic Wikipedia logo showing support for Palestinians

On December 23, 2023, the Arabic Wikipedia changed its logo to the colors of the Palestinian flag and suspended editing articles for one day to protest the ongoing attacks against the Palestinian people and the bias of many Western governments, especially the United States, towards one side of the conflict and the adoption of double standards. The step was taken to express solidarity and rejection of misinformation, according to what was published on the Arabic Wikipedia's main page, which added a logo expressing that.[17][18] This solidarity was widely welcomed by a large number of Arab users and supporters of the Palestinian cause, while it was criticized by some Israeli users.[19]

In June 2024, an edit war involving the English Wikipedia articles for the 2024 Nuseirat rescue operation and the Nuseirat refugee camp massacre occurred, resulting in editing access to the articles being restricted.[20][21]

In July 2024, the English Wikipedia article on "Allegations of genocide in the 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza" was renamed to "Gaza genocide" following two months of debate.[22][23] The article was added to the "List of genocides" article that November.[24]

In September 2024, Jewish Insider reported that a group of editors from the coalition "Tech for Palestine" had been using third-party tools, such as Discord, to coordinate efforts in what they described as the "information battle for truth, peace and justice" on the "Wikipedia front". Their activities included compiling lists of pages they planned to edit, requesting specific changes, and sharing instructional "how-to" videos. One of their resources emphasized that "Wikipedia is not just an online encyclopedia. It's a battleground for narratives."[25] According to Jewish Insider, the group was partially responsible for the decision to deprecate the Anti-Defamation League as a non-reliable source on topics regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles has suggested that despite the site being politically neutral, editors often attempt to inject their own bias while making changes to articles.[26]

Commentary and response

Benjakob noted in 2021 that articles on the conflict are very different between the English, Hebrew and Arabic Wikipedias, and that the conflict is one of the three most regulated areas on English Wikipedia.[12] In 2023, Stephen Harrison of Slate wrote, "It shouldn't come as a surprise that Wikipedia is a better place to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than X, TikTok, and other social media platforms are."[13]

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) stated in a March 2024 report that "the state of the articles dealing with the conflict is alarming in its lack of neutrality." The WJC also stated that Wikipedia's comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany article "normalizes the unacceptable comparison" due to terms such as "occupation" and "military actions". The WJC also reported that "deletion attacks" occurred on Wikipedia, which resulted in the simultaneous deletion nominations of the articles for the Netiv HaAsara, Nir Yitzhak and Holit massacres, as well as Inbal Rabin-Lieberman.[27] A columnist in The Forward called the WJC's cited examples of bias against Israel "less than convincing".[28]

A June 2024 Jerusalem Post opinion piece said that the English version of the Israel–Hamas war article was arguably more neutral than the Arabic and Hebrew versions.[29] Another, written in September, said that the titling of the Gaza Genocide article should "by any reasonable measure, hammer a final nail into the coffin of Wikipedia's credibility as a reliable source of information about Israel and Jews."[30] Ynetnews said in August 2024 that "Since the war began, Wikipedia has become a battleground for information warfare, with significant power struggles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli editors. According to Israeli editors, many entries are written from anti-Israel perspectives by editors using the platform to echo Palestinian messages."[31] Israel Hayom said in september 2024 that "... Wikipedia is often subject to scrutiny, especially when it comes to contentious issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With millions of readers relying on the site for information, changes to entries like these can have significant implications for public understanding of historical events and modern geopolitical debates."[32]

The Washington Examiner reported that US congressman Ritchie Torres slammed Wikipedia in an 2024 X post, stating that according to their 'warped telling of history, Israeli Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as from Ethiopia, are European colonizers'.[33]

From Wikipedia

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has said the topic is debated often but the site strives to be neutral.[34][35]

As of 2023, English Wikipedia articles on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have "extended confirmed protection", meaning that only registered editor accounts with a certain age and number of edits can edit them.[13] The WJC commented that this "leaves many Israelis unable to edit articles about which they have great knowledge."[27]

Reliability of the Anti-Defamation League

In June 2024, the English Wikipedia community declared the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) a generally unreliable source about the conflict.[36][37][38] An English Wikipedia administrator who evaluated the community's consensus for this discussion cited the existence of substantial evidence of the ADL acting as a "pro-Israeli advocacy group" that has published unretracted misinformation "to the point that it taints their reputation for accuracy and fact checking regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", as well as a "habit on the ADL's part of conflating criticism of the Israeli government's actions with antisemitism".[39] Later that month, the English Wikipedia community concluded the ADL's lack of reliability extended to "the intersection of antisemitism and the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, such as labeling pro-Palestinian activists as antisemitic", but "the ADL can roughly be taken as reliable on the topic of antisemitism when Israel and Zionism are not concerned".[39]

The ADL criticized the decision, saying that it was part of a "campaign to delegitimize the ADL."[36][38] James Loeffler of Johns Hopkins University, a professor of modern Jewish history, commented that the Wikipedia editors were "heavily influenced by the ADL leadership's comments", which took "a much more aggressive stance than most academic researchers in blurring the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism".[38] ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that the ADL would do all it could to persuade Wikipedia's leadership they were misunderstanding the situation.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Occupied Palestinian Territory: Overview Map | December 2011". United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 25 January 2012. Archived from the original on 11 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages on Wikipedia". The Jerusalem Post. 16 May 2010. Archived from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Benjakob, Omer (4 October 2020). "The Second Intifada Still Rages on Wikipedia". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  4. ^ McElroy, Damien (7 May 2008). "Israeli battles rage on Wikipedia". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 February 2024. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  5. ^ a b Shabi, Rachel; Kiss, Jemima (18 August 2010). "Wikipedia editing courses launched by Zionist groups". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2013-08-19. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  6. ^ a b Somaiya, Ravi (31 August 2010). "Wikipedia: A New Battleground in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 2023-05-31. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  7. ^ Issacharoff, Avi (29 August 2010). "Palestinians Prepare to Battle 'Zionist Editing' on Wikipedia". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  8. ^ Yaron, Oded (17 June 2013). "Aligning Text to the Right: Is a Political Organization Editing Wikipedia to Suit Its Interests?". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 13 July 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  9. ^ See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-06-19/In the media
  10. ^ Benjakob, Omer (7 December 2017). "After Trump Move, Jerusalem Battle Now Plays Out on Wikipedia". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 10 January 2024. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  11. ^ a b Benjakob, Omer (29 November 2020). "On Wikipedia, Israel is losing the battle against the word 'apartheid'". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 15 September 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  12. ^ a b Benjakob, Omer (16 February 2021). "Israeli 'rule,' not 'occupation': In a sign of the times, Hebrew Wikipedia renames a key article". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 19 November 2023. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  13. ^ a b c Harrison, Stephen (26 October 2023). "Wikipedia Is Covering the War in Israel and Gaza Better Than X". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  14. ^ ""ويكيبيديا" وحرب غزة... حلبة صراع جديدة بين "كتائب" المحررين". اندبندنت عربية. November 25, 2023. Archived from the original on 25 November 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  15. ^ a b Benjakob, Omer (17 November 2023). "Netanyahu vs. Israeli Security Chiefs: Wikipedia Is New Front in Gaza War Blame Game". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 17 November 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  16. ^ "Wikimedia Foundation calls for unrestricted internet connectivity and access to knowledge in Gaza". Wikimedia Foundation. 5 December 2023. Archived from the original on 23 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  17. ^
  18. ^ Wintour, Patrick (26 December 2023). "Why US double standards on Israel and Russia play into a dangerous game". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  19. ^ "إغلاق ويكيبيديا العربيَّة دعماً لغزَّة.. كيف يتشكل التضامن الرقمي من أجل فلسطين؟ | عربي بوست" [Closing the Arabic Wikipedia in support of Gaza... How is digital solidarity for Palestine formed? [Google translate]]. arabicpost.net. Archived from the original on 25 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  20. ^ Shamim, Sarah; Oxford, Dwayne (14 June 2024). "Wikipedia war: Fierce row erupts over Israel's deadly Nuseirat assault". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 2024-06-17. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  21. ^ "Wikipedia article on Israeli army's Nuseirat massacre in Gaza sparks edit war, restrictions". The New Arab. 15 June 2024. Archived from the original on 16 June 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  22. ^ Bandler, Aaron (25 July 2024). "Wikipedia Editors Title Article "Gaza Genocide"". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  23. ^ "English Wikipedia editors say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza". The New Arab. 9 August 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  24. ^ "'It's not close' - Israel committing genocide concludes Wikipedia ending editorial debate". Middle East Monitor. November 8, 2024.
  25. ^ Deutch, Gabby (26 June 2024). "Inside the war over Israel at Wikipedia". Jewish Insider. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  26. ^ Tankle, Lee (31 October 2024). "Pro-Hamas editors insert anti-Israel bias into Wikipedia". Jewish Report. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
  27. ^ a b Aharoni Lir, Shlomit (14 March 2024). "The Bias Against Israel on Wikipedia" (PDF). World Jewish Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  28. ^ Eshman, Rob (19 June 2024). "Wikipedia called the ADL 'unreliable.' It's a wake-up call the civil rights organization badly needs". The Forward. Archived from the original on 20 June 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  29. ^ Byron, Avior (2 June 2024). "Truth held hostage: Language differences in Wikipedia's 'Israel-Hamas War' page - opinion". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 3 June 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  30. ^ Winton, Aviva (13 September 2024). "Wikipedia has an antisemitism problem - opinion". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  31. ^ Edelson, Daniel (5 August 2024). "Amid Gaza war, Wikipedia editors conclude Israel guilty of genocide". Ynetnews. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  32. ^ Linn, Erez (17 September 2024). "Wikipedia entry on Zionism defines it as 'colonialism', sparking outrage". Israel Hayom. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  33. ^ Cordi, Peter (19 September 2024). "Wikipedia blasted for 'wildly inaccurate' change to entry on Zionism: 'Downright antisemitic'". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
  34. ^ Traison, Aliyana (5 August 2011). "Wikipedia Founder: Israel-Palestine Is Heavily Debated, but We're Vigilant on Neutrality". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  35. ^ "Wikipedia founder supports Israel, but keeps site neutral". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  36. ^ a b Marcus, Josh (19 June 2024). "Why Wikipedia just labeled a top Jewish rights organization 'unreliable' on the Israel-Palestine crisis". The Independent. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  37. ^ Elia-Shalev, Asaf (18 June 2024). "ADL faces Wikipedia ban over reliability concerns on Israel, antisemitism". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Archived from the original on 25 June 2024. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  38. ^ a b c Goldman, David (19 June 2024). "Wikipedia now labels the top Jewish civil rights group as an unreliable source". CNN Business. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  39. ^ a b c Bandler, Aaron (21 June 2024). "Wikipedia Editors Label ADL Only Reliable for Antisemitism When "Israel and Zionism Are Not Concerned"". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on 22 June 2024. Retrieved 22 June 2024.

Further reading

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