Why did Wikipedia cofounder block edits to the ‘Gaza genocide’ page?

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales blocked editing access to the site’s Gaza genocide page, saying it did not meet the company’s “high standards” and “required immediate attention.”

In a statement blocked from further editing in the page’s discussion section on Sunday, Wales said he had been asked about the page in a “high-profile media interview” and that the first line of the page stated that genocide was “an ongoing, deliberate and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip by Israel during the Gaza war.”

Wales said the article violated Wikipedia’s neutral perspective, calling it “particularly egregious.” He added that he wrote the statement in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the site.

The page is locked from editing until 21:47 GMT on Tuesday or “until editing disputes are resolved,” according to a note on the page.

Here’s what we know:

What did Wales say?

Wales said Sunday that he assumed “everyone working on this ‘genocide’ article in Gaza had good intentions.”

But he continued: “Currently, Wikipedia’s position and public presentation state that Israel committed genocide, but this claim is highly controversial. This is a violation of WP:NPOV (Wikipedia Neutral Point of View) and WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV (Wikipedia Attribute Point of View) and must be corrected immediately.” He added that it was “non-negotiable”.

“An impartial approach could start with a formulation like this: ‘Many governments, NGOs and legal institutions have characterized or denied Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide,'” he added.

Many major international organizations, including the United Nations, have claimed that Israel’s attack on Gaza constitutes genocide. This view is supported by human rights organizations and academics.

Wales went on to list recommendations for the page’s editors, including focusing on texts and sources, using “high quality” sources from all sides, and “separating factual reporting of behavior and deaths from legal characterization.”

“By focusing on verifiable sources and objectivity, we can quickly deliver an article that meets our standards for controversial topics,” Wales said.

Have there been any criticisms of his position?

Yes. On the talk page where Wales uploaded his statement, page editors requested further explanation from the founder regarding his decision to lock the page and his suggestions.

An editor with the username “Hemiauchenia” called Wales’ statement “patronising” and accused Wales of trying to unfairly equate the views of neutral organizations with those of partial or political ones.

“The question is: Why should the views of the largely neutral UN and human rights scholars be weighed equally with the blatantly partisan views of commentators and governments? You are allowed to disagree with the consensus of the Wikipedia community, but it would be arrogant to disparage the community as ‘wrong’ by following the views of the UN, genocide experts, and leading human rights organizations,” the editor wrote.

In response, Wales said that an editor’s job “as Wikipedians is not to take sides in this debate, but to document it carefully and impartially.”

Responding to Wales, the “Cortador” editor denied that Wikipedia always treats all views equally.

“Wikipedia has never treated all voices equally, and the policy does not require us to do so. If it were, the Earth article would state that the shape of the Earth is being discussed. But we do not do this because the scientific consensus is that the Earth is roughly spherical. Instead, flat earthism is presented for what it is: a fringe movement without scientific support,” the editor wrote.

Another editor, using the username “Darouet,” expressed that “you are discouraged.” [Wales] Explain clearly that you came to us under political pressure and that you want us to betray science and WP:NPOV. “We can’t do this.”

Who recognized the genocide in Gaza?

one in september UN The investigation found that Israel’s war in Gaza amounted to genocide.

The report stated that statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant showed “circumstantial evidence” that led to findings of genocidal intent.

But Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the findings as “fake” and accused the report’s authors of “serving as proxies for Hamas” in a post on X.

The same month, the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars also adopted a resolution stating that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza comply with the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

in April, Amnesty International He also revealed that Israel committed a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza.

In 2023, the South African government filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and in early 2024 the court issued an initial ruling that there was sufficient evidence to indicate the possibility of genocide. That case is ongoing.

How bad are conditions in Gaza right now?

Israel’s war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, following Hamas-led attacks on villages and army outposts in southern Israel that left 1,139 people dead and nearly 200 captured and taken back to Gaza.

Over the past two years, the war has resulted in multiple displacements of the majority of Gaza’s population. Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Sunday that nearly 69,000 people were killed and 170,670 were injured. Thousands of Palestinians are missing.

Humanitarian group Save the Children reported in September that Israeli attacks killed at least 20,000 children, meaning one child was killed every hour.

Additionally, citing the region’s Ministry of Health and the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Save the Children reported that at least 21,000 children were permanently disabled as a result of the war.

Intensive Israeli bombardments on the ground destroyed most of Gaza’s residential areas and public buildings, including nearly all hospitals.

As of September 23, about 83 percent of all structures in Gaza City, the region’s largest city, were damaged, including “an estimated 81,159 housing units,” according to estimates from UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Moreover, as of October 22, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote to X that there is no longer a fully functioning hospital in Gaza.

“Only 14 out of 36 people are working,” he wrote, adding that there was a “critical shortage of essential medicines, equipment and healthcare workers.”

Amid widespread destruction, Israel continued to block humanitarian aid shipments to the region despite the ceasefire. More than 236 people were killed in Gaza during ongoing Israeli attacks Since the ceasefire was agreed to on 10 October.

Malnutrition in Gaza reached dire levels when the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report declared famine in areas across the region in August.

According to a British Red Cross statement on October 10, “approximately 470,000 people, or 22 percent of Gaza’s population, face imminent threat of starvation.”