World Jewish Congress on Wikipedia's Anti-Israel Bias

Logo of the Arabic Wikipedia

On March 19th, the World Jewish Congress released a report on anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia. The statement announcing the report can be found here and the report itself is here.

The statement introducing the report states as follows:

In the aftermath of October 7, the English-language version of Wikipedia contains an anti-Israel bias that perpetuates disinformation and promotes negative stereotypes, according to a World Jewish Congress report issued today on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The bias takes myriad forms, appearing in terminology, framing and lack of context, one-sided sources and critical omissions, among other occurrences, in articles on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to the WJC report. 

For instance, biased articles may promote the demonization or delegitimization of Israel; avoid mentioning terrorism and other tangible threats faced by Israel; and lack critical Israeli voices, researchers and facts that may support Israel's rationale for its policies, the report states. 

It points out things that are not generally known, such as that the Arabic-language Wikipedia is actively pro-Hamas and has abandoned the so-called "neutral point of view" policy supposedly required of all Wikimedia Foundation projects. The Foundation has done nothing about it.

In the English Wikipedia, the problems are outlined as follows:

Content Bias: This refers to the presentation of the war and the use of terminology and references regarding Hamas and Israel that may demonstrate bias. 

Deletion Attacks and Tendentious Deletion Attempts: This involves surprise deletion attacks or efforts to remove articles related to Israel. 

Editing Restrictions: Certain procedures, such as limiting editing access for users with less than 500 edits and less of 30 days seniority, may hinder the democratic nature of the site, particularly concerning war-related entries; 

Selective Enforcement: System administrators may exhibit biased behavior by inconsistently applying rules, especially in cases involving Israelis or those not supporting a “so-called” pro-Palestinian stance; 

Anti-Israeli Editors: Users have reported instances of aggressive behavior from editors with anti-Israeli views, leading to attempts to block Israeli contributors; and 

Biased Sources: Wikipedia may frequently rely on sources such as media outlets, journalists, or researchers with clear anti-Zionist perspectives, potentially leading to biased content 

This is a very good outline and covers points that others have observed over the years and which we have raised in this new blog.  

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