Wikipedia’s main page on Israel has been altered to state as fact that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a dramatic shift in language that has further exposed its bias and the erosion of neutrality on the world’s largest online encyclopedia.

The change was made on December 11 and remains in place despite extensive internal debate among Wikipedia editors. The wording appears prominently in the lead section of the article — the most visible and widely read portion of the page.

Previously, the article acknowledged that accusations of genocide had been leveled against Israel by certain human rights organizations and United Nations officials, while stopping short of presenting those claims as established fact. The earlier version stated that Israel had faced “accusations… that it has committed crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Palestinians during the Gaza war.”

That language has now been replaced with a far more definitive assertion.

The current text reads: “Following the October 7 attacks in 2023, Israel began committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” The sentence links directly to a separate Wikipedia article titled “Gaza genocide,” effectively embedding the allegation as a factual description rather than a contested claim.

The shift is particularly notable because there is no formal legal consensus among nations or international courts that Israel has committed genocide. While the International Court of Justice has ruled that the risk of genocide in Gaza is “plausible” — a preliminary legal threshold — it has not ruled that genocide has occurred. Similarly, the International Criminal Court has pursued investigations and potential charges related to war crimes and crimes against humanity, but as of late 2025 has not charged Israel with genocide.

The “Gaza genocide” article itself has drawn widespread criticism, including from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. In a November interview, Wales said the page fails to meet Wikipedia’s own neutrality and sourcing standards. “This article fails to meet our high standards and needs immediate attention,” he said, pointing to broader problems with editorial balance on politically charged topics.

Concerns over Wikipedia’s handling of Israel-related content have also reached Capitol Hill. In August, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launched an investigation into Wikipedia, examining whether nation-state actors or coordinated bad-faith editors have influenced articles dealing with Israel and the Middle East.

That inquiry was fueled in part by a March 2025 report from the Anti-Defamation League, which identified at least 30 editors who allegedly worked to inject antisemitic and anti-Israel bias into Wikipedia articles. According to the report, those editors were twice as active over the past decade as their peers and communicated internally at rates 18 times higher than average — a pattern the ADL described as indicative of organized influence.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)