Wales, who founded the online encyclopaedia in 2001, stepped in to raise his concerns that the article states, in Wikipedia’s voice: “The Gaza genocide is the ongoing, intentional, and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip carried out by Israel during the Gaza war.”
In an update on the discussion page about edits to the article, Wales said he had been asked in a “high profile” media interview about the article, and he had responded that it “fails to meet our high standards and needs immediate attention”.
Calling the page a “particularly egregious” example of an issue with neutrality on Wikipedia, Wales added: “At present, the lede and the overall presentation state, in Wikipedia’s voice, that Israel is committing genocide, although that claim is highly contested.”
He said this was a violation of Wikipedia rules requiring neutrality of voice and attribution for claims.
Wales added: “Remember: ‘This policy is non-negotiable, and the principles upon which it is based cannot be superseded by other policies or guidelines, nor by editor consensus.’”
The intervention has been met with anger by other Wikipedia editors, with one accusing Wales of coming “under political pressure and asking us to betray scholarship”.
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Responding, Wales said: “I have said repeatedly: outside pressure is irrelevant – and I should say that's true in either direction.
“The neutrality of this article is disputed, and there are very good reasons for that – it inappropriately, and contrary to our policy and traditions, takes sides in an ongoing controversy when it ought to accurately and fairly summarize all relevant views.”
Another editor responded: “There's also an ‘ongoing controversy’ over whether mRNA vaccines cause ‘turbo cancer’ and whether [Donald] Trump actually won the 2020 Presidential election. Do you want us to be [bold] and go edit those articles as well?”
Another said: “I have been editing in the [Israel Palestine] area for just over 20 years, and [as far as I know] there has never been as much outside focus on Wikipedia's cover of the area as now. Much of it negative, from pro-Israeli opinionators, X.com, blogs, you name it …
“Jimbo Wales writes: ‘The neutrality of this article is disputed, and there are very good reasons for that’. Could you please tell us one or two of those ‘good reasons’?”
Others said that Wales did not have control over Wikipedia, and was only an editor like anyone else, but had been “trying to pull an authority-based argument while promoting a book”.
“I'm not sure Jimbo's plea needs to be entertained much beyond demonstrating that current consensus is something different than what he thinks it should be,” one user said.
Amid the backlash, Wales insisted that he was not saying “that it is not genocide, my argument is that it is not the job of Wikipedia to adjudicate the issue”.
As it stands, the “Gaza genocide” article on Wikipedia is listed as “protected” until 21:47UTC on November 4.
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Experts including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, B’Tselem, and a UN Human Rights Council commission led by former president of the Rwanda genocide international tribunal Navi Pillay, have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, denies having committed genocide or war crimes against Palestinians.
Netanyahu is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court for alleged crime against humanity, while the International Court of Justice has provisionally ruled that Palestinians’ right to be protected from genocide faces plausible risk.
Last month, Wales warned of a "political showdown" with the Labour Government over the Online Safety Act in order to protect free and open access to the internet.
“It’s really very poorly thought-out legislation. It feels like it was passed because they felt like they needed to do something, and this was something," he said.