Wikipedia’s Arabic-Language Site Spreads Anti-Israel Propaganda

[hyatt]

National Review: Wikipedia’s Arabic-Language Site Spreads Anti-Israel Propaganda

At the top of each page on the Arabic-language version of Wikipedia is a black banner showing the Wikipedia globe logo enveloped with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh. Next to the icon is a note accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Each phrase in red, “genocide in Gaza,” “killing civilians,” “targeting hospitals and schools,” and “mislead and double standards,” leads to its own Arabic-language article. “Genocide in Gaza” goes to the article for “the Palestinian-Israeli war in 2023,” which the page also describes as “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” “the Hamas War,” “the Third Intifada,” and “the Gaza massacre.” The link referencing civilian deaths leads to a page that translates to “Pogroms during the Palestinian-Israeli War 2023,” which makes no distinction between Hamas terrorists and civilians and claims Israel bombed the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which, of course, it did not.

There is Wikipedia's vaunted neutrality. The non-Arabic pages are just as bad but they are better at hiding it.

[Bbb23sucks]

What about the reverse? What does Hebrew and Yiddish Wikipedia say?

[ericbarbour]

What about the reverse? What does Hebrew and Yiddish Wikipedia say?

All I can do is drop some book-wiki info here. If you want more, you will have to delve--I don't have time or the language skills. Also leaving out the mountain of crap left from past Israel/Palestine editwarring. You could write 10 textbooks just about that one subject.

As this blogger pointed out in May 2013: " The interesting exception to this rule is the Middle East. All languages in our sample apart from Hungarian, Romanian, Japanese, and Chinese actually include articles in Israel as some of those characterised by a large amount of conflict. " Thus, it appears that pro-Israel editors are appearing on other language Wikipedias as well.

Note that pro-Israel POV pushing has occurred on Wikipedia since 2001. One of the earliest editors, RK, focused almost entirely on Judaism-related articles, and was repeatedly accused of bias.[1] One of Wikipedia's earliest attempts to adjudicate a settlement, well before the existence of Arbcom, was in July 2003--and involved RK's bias. Indeed, RK's habitual tantrums resulted in the formation of the Arbitration committee and the Mediation system. He was also subjected to two RFCs and two arbitrations. RK left Wikipedia in 2012 after years of declining interest.

With only 135,000 articles in 2013 and 200,000 as of 2017, the Hebrew Wikipedia is either very well-run and well-disciplined, and/or hopelessly bigoted against Arabs and Palestinians, depending on who is being asked.

Quote: "You might like the Hebrew Wikipedia. They have a "Parliament" with policy votes decided by a 60 or 65% majority, I don't remember which. AFDs are also essentially votes with a separate section for discussion if needed. Some of the policies on Hebrew Wikipedia are annoying, but at least they have a functioning system for making policy, and I dare say it's a happier place in general than English Wikipedia."
Quote: "Most minor-language Wikipedias are chock full of polemic screeds, making the English Wikipedia look like a paragon of neutrality and editorial restraint. The unrestrained nationalism of several of the eastern European language wikis is especially noticeable, and the Hebrew wiki's unabashed pro-Zionist, anti-Palestine politics are equally well-known. These political biases invariably affect decisions on whether or not a given source is "reliable" enough to "verify" something."
Quote: "The problem with democracy on contents is that it can be used to enforce cultural biases. Just think how the Hebrew, English, Russian and Arabic Wikipedias are likely to be positioned on the spectrum of opinions on the Israel-Palestine conflict."
Quote: "The Hebrew Wikipedia is hopelessly biased in its coverage of Israel and all matters related to Islam (surprise, that) and has been known to enforce opinion orthodoxy on its editors as well. "
Quote: "If you don't think it's "that bad", here's a little illustration. Go to Google Translate, put in "he.wikipedia.org", and translate from Hebrew to English. Then put the word "פלסטינה" (Palestine) in the search box and hit return, and look at some of the resulting articles. Items like "Arab conquest of the Land of Israel" or "War of Independence" should give you some idea. Plus articles about British people involved in the Arab revolt against the Ottomans, like Stewart Francis Newcombe or T.E. Lawrence, tend to be very negative. And the one about Yassir Arafat (יאסר ערפאת), hoo boy."
One of the few mentions of Hebrew Wikipedia in English-language media: "Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published an article about the Hebrew Wikipedia’s deletion discussions that it considers elite enough to put behind its premium content paywall, although it is still available though search engines. At issue was whether Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s 25-year-old son Yair Netanyahu should have an article on the Hebrew Wikipedia. In the end, the younger Netanyahu got an article, but only at the cost of undeleting an article for another prime minister’s son, Shaul Olmert, the son of Ehud Olmert. In a seemingly unrelated discussion reminiscent of the Pokeman character argument for inclusionism, the article also points out that individual characters for the Game of Thrones have their own articles on Hebrew Wikipedia, as does the former caretaker of Netanyahu’s residence, who has lately been leading protests. The entry for the Likud party’s liberal caucus has likewise been undeleted, after a resurgence of the New Likudniks, however an article for an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic blogger failed to pass the notability discussion. There was also a nearly unanimous decision that the word kef (fun) should no longer redirect to hana’ah (enjoyment), but deserves a separate article."

Containing only 184,000 articles as of 2013, little is known about the Arabic Wikipedia's internal culture and operations. However, it has long been rumored to be the exact opposite to the Hebrew Wikipedia--extremely hostile toward Israel and Jews, on an "unofficial" but pervasive basis. By 2017 ar-WP had grown to a massive 456,000 articles, most apparently cross-translated from en-WP using bots. Autotranslating the article about Israel gives the following quotes:

"State of Israel ( in Hebrew : מדינת ישראל Mdinat Yisrael), or the Zionist entity (the name given it by those who do not want to say "Israel" because of their recognition of their legitimacy) is a country in Western Asia located on the east bank of the Mediterranean Sea."
"....the war between the Arabs and Zionist Jews resulted in the Nakba of Palestine and exterminated many of the Palestinian towns and villages -- Most of its inhabitants became refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and in some Arab countries or internally displaced, in Israel. "
"After the general election shall be elected members of the Knesset, the new head of the new government from among the members and give him a certain time to form his government, then recognizes members of the Knesset, the government proposed by the president-elect, and are classified in some quarters Israel as at the forefront of democratic regimes in the Middle East, but this democracy is damaged image often non-governmental organizations to declare that Israel is a racist state to commit genocide against the Palestinian people [5] ."
In September 2013, it was revealed that WMF employee Faris Knight, Education Program Consultant for the Arab World, was fond of Adolf Hitler. [10] Along with several other Arabic Wikipedia editors.
Also in 2013, the sysops of Arabic WP started offering cash prizes for editing. [11]

A 2014 Wired article, which discussed ar-WP cofounder Rami Tarawneh:

"“We know who you are,” the police told Tarawneh. As the founder and highest-ranking administrator of Arabic Wikipedia at the time — 2007 — Tarawneh had access to the IP addresses of every site contributor, including those who wrote controversial statements about Middle Eastern governments. “They wanted to know the IP of a certain guy who wrote something about the country’s leader,” Tarawneh says without mentioning which country or airport he was in."
"Arabic Wikipedia has evolved enormously since that 2007 incident. Through it all, Tarawneh has been a steady presence, guiding and cheerleading as Arabic Wikipedia has become an important information resource for the region. Far more than a translation of its English counterpart, the site has 690,000 registered users who’ve authored more than 240,000 articles. Many of the articles reflect a Middle Eastern worldview entirely different from the Western one, and their writers navigate acute religious and political sensitivities. Arabic Wikipedia has been blocked twice in Saudi Arabia and three times in Syria, but not in Jordan or Egypt. The Saudis only blocked certain articles, Tarawneh says, like ones about body parts."
"Back in 2007, Tarawneh told the police he needed time to find the IP address on his laptop. Released for two days, he went home and phoned the Wikipedian community. They decided to stage a fake dispute on “Al-Midan,” the Arabic version of Wikipedia’s technical discussion forum, Village Pump. When the police summoned Tarawneh a few days later, he told them that in the wake of the dispute, he’d been removed from administrator status. “I gave them my account and password, but everything was blocked,” Tarawneh says. Unable to extract the IP address they’d wanted, the police released him.".....

"At the same time, some users – mostly from Saudi Arabia, Tarawneh says – will veer to the extreme. “We’ve got guys posting on a daily basis saying, ‘The Westerners are infidels. This is Arabic Wikipedia, so it should be Muslim Wikipedia. Why do we have Christians with us?’” When this happens, veteran Wikipedians contact these users one-on-one, telling them why their post is inconsistent with the Wikipedia approach and fixing the offending article in the meantime."

[Bbb23sucks]

Also don't forget about:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2645&p=23810&hilit ... ate#p23810
https://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12812