Wikipedia states as fact that Israel has committed genocide

The Wikipedia page on China mentions the claim that the country has carried out genocide against the Uyghur minority nearly 7,500 words into the text.

The reference is tucked in a section on “sociopolitical issues and human rights” in China and even then, the allegation is more diluted. 

It says: “Since 2017, the Chinese government has been engaged in a harsh crackdown in Xinjiang, with around one million Uyghurs and other ethnic and religion minorities being detained in internment camps aimed at changing the political thinking of detainees, their identities and their religious beliefs, in what some described as a genocide or crimes against humanity,” Wikipedia states.

Deborah Lipstadt, former US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, recently told JNS that she had “pretty much lost faith in Wikipedia as anything resembling a neutral source” and that it was “pretty close to, but not yet identical with, the BBC.”

Asked her about the new change to the main “Israel” page, she said: “I said Wikipedia was almost as bad as the BBC, maybe I’d leave out the ‘almost’ this time.”

Archives of discussions between editors on the “talk” pages for the Wikipedia main entries on Israel and China suggest that individuals working on the site, who are often anonymous and unpaid volunteers, approached the two countries very differently.

On the China page, editors rejected the view that the article should state high up that the country was committing genocide against the Uyghurs.

One editor said that such an insertion would be “recentism” and “contentious.” Another editor said that “describing a country usually doesn’t include the crimes it’s committed. The lead is for the straight basics about the country, not going on a tirade about its controversial policies.”

Wikipedia also renamed its page that used to be on “Uyghur genocide” to “Persecution of Uyghurs in China” in February 2024, after editors said there were not enough sources describing it as a genocide. Wikipedia lists both that page on the Uyghurs and a page on the “Gaza genocide” in its “list of genocides”.

When it came to stating high up on the Israel page that the Jewish state was guilty of “genocide”, Wikipedia editors appeared to be evenly split, so a “closer” – a third party – was brought in to deliver a verdict.

The person, who is supposed to be uninvolved in the matter, decided that majority were in favour of the amendment, so it was changed. That ruling was being challenged as of publication time.

The decision was reported as follows: “What is decided by consensus is to incorporate Israel genocide in lede [top of the Israel entry]. Closer's choosing of word is not binding. Its their preference…. Closer itself has said further refinements can be discussed.”

The crowdsourced encyclopaedia is reportedly one of the main sources upon which artificial intelligence “feeds”.

Written with JNS.org