Wikipedia’s anti-Israel propaganda mocks objectivity and destroys its credibility
Wikipedia’s Arabic site logo is draped in Palestinian flag colors, and the site professes loyalty to the Palestinian cause.
by Jason Shvili
(FLAME) — If you search for Zionism on Google, you’ll quickly find this bizarre definition on Wikipedia: “Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century and aimed for the establishment of a Jewish state through the colonization of a land outside Europe.”
In other words, Israel is an ethnonationalist colonial movement — precisely what they scream in pro-Palestine demonstrations on university campuses all over America. Zionism is apparently not the self-determination struggle of the Jewish people to repatriate their ancient homeland in the land of Israel.
Wikipedia has, over the decades, become the internet’s go-to encyclopedia — known for its comprehensiveness and crowd-sourced objectivity. But lately, it has been hijacked by groups working to turn the online platform into a leftist propaganda machine, especially to smear and delegitimize Israel.
A recent study by Pirate Wires found that a cadre of some 40 Wikipedia editors, working singly and in small groups, in recent years has completely rewritten most articles covering Israel. They have created a damning narrative of colonialism and Palestinian oppression that rivals the perversions promoted as doctrine in many university humanities departments.
The flagrant bias of these articles violates Wikipedia’s Neutral Point of View policy, not to mention other policies that are supposed to prohibit anyone from exercising disproportionate control over the platform. Online activists who try to combat the anti-Israel, antisemitic content on Wikipedia by editing articles and complaining to administrators are most often ignored and sometimes even punished for challenging the anti-Israel narrative that is preferred by the vast majority of the platform’s editors.
Jewish organizations have also challenged Wikipedia for its anti-Israel bias, but their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. The not-for-profit Wikipedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, washes their hands of the problem, saying they don’t exercise power over their platform’s content, thus contradicting the group’s alleged commitment to neutrality.
If Wikipedia fails to uphold its own policies, those who rely on the platform — particularly supporters of Israel — would be well-advised to stop using and funding it. Surely more reliable resources are available or will emerge.
Radical far-leftists have banded together to smear Israel on Wikipedia. Among them is a group of 40 mostly veteran Wikipedia editors, who are responsible for editing more than 10,000 articles on topics related to Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a fashion that delegitimizes the Jewish state. In many cases, the group’s edits account for upwards of 90 percent of the content on an article, giving them complete control of the topics.
Wikipedia content is rife with outright lies and false accusations against the world’s one and only Jewish state. For example, the article on Zionism wrongly states that the Palestinians became a minority in Israel “primarily due to expulsions by Zionist forces, and later the Israeli army.” In fact, most Palestinians refugees were not expelled, and none would have lost their homes if Arab leaders had accepted the 1947 UN Partition Plan that allotted states to both Jews and Arabs.
Furthermore, if you type “Zionism” into Wikipedia’s search box, the platform’s auto-fill returns entries like “Zionism as settler colonialism,” “Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims,” and “Racism in Israel,” implying that Zionism is a racist, colonial movement, when it is in fact a movement for indigenous self-determination, which has created a paradise of freedom for Israel’s two million Arab citizens.
An even more blatant example of Wikipedia’s anti-Israel bias can be found on the platform’s Arabic edition, which is headed by Wikipedia’s logo draped in the colors of the Palestinian flag and a statement reading, “In solidarity with the rights of the Palestinian people, no to genocide in Gaza… no to killing civilians…”
Any attempt to combat anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia is quickly quashed. Anti-Israel editors gang up on pro-Israel users and drown them out with superior numbers. For instance, when some editors proposed adding the qualifier “Hamas-run” to describe the Gaza Health Ministry, which in fact is 100 percent controlled by Hamas, other editors voted by a 3:1 margin to ban this qualifier.
Challenging the anti-Israel narrative can even get users banned from the platform. In one case, Magde Qasim, an Israeli Druze, attempted to edit misinformation in different articles. He said, “I would correct very small issues; for instance, some Arab cities inside Israel were written under Palestine. So, I changed it to Israel and soon found out that it was changed back again to Palestine. They ended up blocking my account for two years.”
Jewish groups have also attempted to combat Wikipedia’s anti-Israel bias to no avail. Earlier this year, more than 40 Jewish groups penned a letter to the Wikipedia Foundation calling on it to override a decision by editors to declare the Anti-Defamation League an unreliable source on Israel and Zionism.
In response, the Foundation replied, “This letter represents a misunderstanding of the situation and how Wikipedia works,” referring to its practice of not interfering in decisions made by its volunteer editors — despite the fact that this decision violates Wikipedia’s own Neutral Point of View (NPOV) policy.
Wikipedia has failed to enforce its own policies. The organization’s executives have irresponsibly ignored not just NPOV, but other policies designed to prevent groups from dominating content on Wikipedia to promote a specific agenda. These policies include prohibiting editors from “engineering ‘victory’ in a content dispute,” discouraging tag teaming, when “editors coordinate their actions to circumvent the normal process of consensus,” and forbidding canvassing — secret coordination with the “intention of influencing the outcome of a discussion in a particular way.”
The cynical use of Wikipedia by pro-Hamas radicals to delegitimize Israel destroys the platform’s credibility. Those who control Wikipedia have the power to stop the insertion of hateful bias, but until now, they have not done so.
Make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues — or in letters to the editor — that Wikipedia cannot not be trusted on any topic related to Israel. If it fails to act against extremists hijacking the platform to promote a narrative delegitimizing the Jewish state, then users should abandon it and patronize more reliable sources. Those whose donations fund the platform would do better by supporting more credible media outlets.
Jason Shvili is contributing editor to Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).
