Wikipedia restricts editing of the “Gaza genocide” page.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales recently blocked users from editing the page titled “Gaza Genocide.” He claimed that the content is biased against Israel. Citing Wikipedia’s policies on impartiality, Wales criticized the article’s tone, stating, “This article does not meet our high standards and needs immediate attention to balance its tone.” He emphasized the importance of maintaining objectivity on difficult or controversial topics and referred to this particular article as “a very egregious example” of biased content, adding that there is much more work to be done.
Wales urged users to reconsider their contributions and adopt an unbiased approach, suggesting a neutral starting point: “Numerous governments, NGOs, and legal bodies have described or denied Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.” He restricted editing access to the page, which reportedly ranks high in search engine results and returns seven out of ten results from AI searches.
However, Wales’s call for a balanced revision of the article has sparked backlash among Wikipedia editors and the public. Critics argue that his actions risk denying and concealing the realities of the Gaza genocide and may capitulate to pressure from the pro-Zionist lobby, thereby undermining Wikipedia’s role in documenting global events.
Meanwhile, Wikipedia editors have accused Wales of promoting false equivalence by downplaying evidence from reports by the United Nations, human rights organizations, and the International Court of Justice in The Hague that confirm the genocide in Gaza. They expressed concern that his approach disregards global public opinion and undermines the coverage of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which the United Nations estimates has resulted in the deaths of at least 69,000 people and injuries to about 171,000 since Israel’s devastating offensive began on October 7, 2023. The cost of rebuilding Gaza has been estimated at approximately $70 billion.
This controversy regarding the “Gaza Genocide” page follows a letter sent in August by US Republican politicians, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Congresswoman Nancy Mace. They alleged that organized groups were violating Wikipedia’s rules by editing sensitive topics, contributing to anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content. They also claimed that foreign actors and scholars systematically edit pages to promote anti-Western and anti-Israel narratives and demanded a record of how Wikipedia identifies and punishes such activities.