{"id":45638,"date":"2025-12-16T11:28:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45638"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:28:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:28:35","slug":"40-groups-urge-wikipedia-to-oppose-co-founders-censorship-on-gaza-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/40-groups-urge-wikipedia-to-oppose-co-founders-censorship-on-gaza-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"40+ Groups Urge Wikipedia to Oppose Co-Founders\u2019 \u2018Censorship on Gaza Genocide\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Palestinians<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An aerial view shows Palestinians walking through the ruins of destroyed buildings in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, on February 5, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWales and Sanger must be stopped from trying to censor the Wikipedia \u2018Gaza genocide\u2019 entry that clearly documents Israel\u2019s horrifying crime against humanity.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 15, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 40 advocacy groups on Monday called on Wikipedia editors and the Wikimedia board of trustees to reject efforts by the web-based encyclopedia\u2019s co-founders to censor the site\u2019s entry on the Gaza<\/a> genocide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After months of internal debate, editors of the Wikipedia article titled \u201cAllegations of genocide in the 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza\u201d renamed the entry \u201cGaza genocide<\/a>\u201d in July 2024, reflecting experts\u2019 growing acknowledgement<\/a> that Israel\u2019s annihilation and siege of the Palestinian exclave met the legal definition<\/a> of the ultimate crime. The entry also notes that the Gaza<\/a> genocide is not settled legal fact\u2014an International Court of Justice<\/a> case on the matter is ongoing<\/a>\u2014and that numerous experts refute the claim that Israel\u2019s war is genocidal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See the 19 Photos House Oversight Democrats Just Released From Epstein\u2019s Estate<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The move, and the subsequent addition of Gaza to Wikipedia\u2019s article listing cases of genocide, sparked heated \u201cedit wars\u201d on the community-edited site\u2014which has long been a target<\/a><\/a> of pro-Israeli public relations efforts. In the United States<\/a>, a pair of House Republicans<\/a> launched an investigation<\/a> to reveal the identities of the anonymous Wikipedia editors who posted negative facts about Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsraeli officials and pro-Israel organizations are attempting to hide the horrifying reality… by putting pressure on institutions like Wikipedia to engage in genocide denial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia co-founders Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger have intervened in the dispute, with Wales\u2014a self-described<\/a> \u201cstrong supporter of Israel\u201d\u2014publicly stating<\/a> that the Gaza genocide entry lacked neutrality, failed to meet Wikipedia\u2019s \u201chigh standards,\u201d and required \u201cimmediate attention\u201d after an editor blocked changes to the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWales and Sanger are using their roles as Wikipedia founders to bypass the normal editing and review process and introduce their
own ideological biases into an entry that has already undergone exhaustive vetting and review by Wikipedia editors, including thousands of edits and comments,\u201d the 42 advocacy groups said in a letter<\/a> to Wikimedia\u2019s board and site editors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir efforts deny the documented reality of Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza and contradict the broad consensus among genocide scholars<\/a>, international human rights organizations<\/a>, UN experts<\/a>, and both Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations<\/a>,\u201d the groups continue. \u201cIn doing so, Wales and Sanger are engaging in attempted censorship<\/a> and genocide denial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letters\u2019 signers include the American Friends Service Committee<\/a>, Artists Against Apartheid<\/a>, Brave New Films, CodePink, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Democracy<\/a> for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Doctors Against Genocide, MPower Change Action Fund, Peace Action, and United Methodists for Kairos Response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, Israel\u2019s retaliatory obliteration and siege on Gaza\u2014for which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant<\/a> are wanted by the International Criminal Court<\/a> for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes\u2014have left more than 250,000 Palestinians<\/a> dead, maimed, or missing. Around 2 million other Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, sickened, or starved in what hunger experts say<\/a> is an entirely human-caused famine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe simple reality is that Israeli officials and pro-Israel organizations are attempting to hide the horrifying reality of Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza by pretending that there is a substantive debate and by putting pressure on institutions like Wikipedia to engage in genocide denial,\u201d the groups\u2019 letter asserts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWales\u2019 \u2018both sides\u2019 framework for denying the Gaza genocide,\u201d the groups warned, \u201ccould also be used to legitimize Holocaust denial, denial of the Armenian genocide, or to platform \u2018flat-earthers\u2019 who deny the Earth\u2019s spherical shape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An aerial view shows Palestinians walking through the ruins of destroyed buildings in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, on February 5, 2025. \u00a0(Photo by Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut\/Anadolu via Getty Images) \u201cWales and Sanger must be stopped from trying to censor the Wikipedia \u2018Gaza genocide\u2019 entry that clearly documents Israel\u2019s… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45638"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45639,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45638\/revisions\/45639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}