Thursday, August 08, 2024
Elder of ZiyonThe entry itself is a textbook case of bias. It justifies the accusation by saying that "there are three ways to conceptualise genocide other than the legal definition: in academic social science, in international politics and policy, and in colloquial public usage." But the associate professor they quote for that nugget of information himself said the only definition that matters is the legal one, and adds, “Whether it’s genocide or not I think is a little bit beside the point.”
In other words, even their own sources admit that the accusation is political, not factual. Which makes their title of the entry propaganda, not reality.
Beyond that, it quotes lots of "evidence" of the accusation (like Netanyahu's mentioning Amalek) without quoting any counter-evidence (that Jews understand the reference to be to the commandment to remember Amalek, not to destroy Amalek, and he identified Hamas with Amalek, not Palestinians, which is obvious when you read his statement..)
If this was an isolated case of a bad Wikipedia entry, of which there are many, then it wouldbe bad enough. But it is part of a conscious pattern among Wikipedia editors where they decide that lie about Israel is a fact and not a contested or false accusation.
For example, Wikipedia has an entry titled "Israeli apartheid," not "accusations of Israeli apartheid."
Perhaps even more absurdly, they recently created an entry on "2024 Gaza Strip polio epidemic."
Wikipedia's own definition of "epidemic" is "the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic."
Yet in Gaza there have been zero identified cases of polio. They have found the polio virus in wastewater but have not found a single person with the disease at this time. Calling it an "epidemic" is propaganda by Gaza's health ministry, but does not reflect reality by any definition of the erm.
In London, 18 poliovirus isolates were discovered in 21 of 52 London sewage samples collected between February and July, 2022. No one called that an "epidemic" or even an "outbreak" of polio, even though that was more than has been discovered in Gaza.
Wikipedia is now worse and less factual than most mainstream media in its reporting on Israel and Palestinians. All of its vaunted checks and balances are proven worthless as long as a determined set of editors want to subvert its mission and convert it to just another anti-Israel propaganda outlet.
