Two pieces about the use of Wikipedia as a political-propaganda
platform to rewrite Palestinian history.
I encourage you to take a look at the link that contains CAMERA's
(Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) exchange
of emails.
Enjoy!
Omar
...
EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 21 April 2008
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9474.shtml
DOWNLOAD CAMERA'S EMAILS:
http://electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/080421-camera-wikipedia.pdf
A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret,
long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online
encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history,
pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia
administrative structures to ensure these changes go
either undetected or unchallenged.
A series of emails by members and associates of the
pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle
East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic
Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one
activist termed a "war" on Wikipedia.
A 13 March action alert signed by Gilead Ini, a "Senior
Research Analyst" at CAMERA, calls for "volunteers who can
work as 'editors' to ensure" that Israel-related articles
on Wikipedia are "free of bias and error, and include
necessary facts and context." However, subsequent
communications indicate that the group not only wanted to
keep the effort secret from the media, the public, and
Wikipedia administrators, but that the material they
intended to introduce included discredited claims that
could smear Palestinians and Muslims and conceal Israel's
true history.
With over two million articles in English on every topic
imaginable, Wikipedia has become a primary reference
source for Internet users around the world and a model for
collaboratively produced projects. Openness and good faith
are among Wikipedia's core principles. Any person in the
world can write or edit articles, but Wikipedia has strict
guidelines and procedures for accountability intended to
ensure quality control and prevent vandalism, plagiarism
or distortion. It is because of these safeguards that
articles on key elements of the Palestine-Israel conflict
have generally remained well-referenced, useful and
objective. The CAMERA plan detailed in the e-mails
obtained by EI appears intended to circumvent these
controls.
In the past, CAMERA has gained notoriety for its tactic of
accusing virtually anyone who does not toe a right-wing
pro-Israel line of bias. The group has even accused
editors and reporters of the Israeli daily Haaretz of
being "extreme" and participating in "radical anti-Israel
activity." Jeffrey Dvorkin, the former ombudsman of
National Public Radio (NPR), frequently criticized by
CAMERA for an alleged pro-Palestinian bias, wrote on the
web publication Salon in February 2008 that "as a
consequence of its campaign against NPR, CAMERA acted as
the enabler for some seriously disturbed people," citing
persistent telephone threats he received in the wake of
CAMERA campaigns.
Need for stealth and secrecy
Throughout the documents EI obtained, CAMERA operatives
stress the need for stealth and secrecy. In his initial
action alert, Ini requests that recipients "not forward it
to members of the news media." In a 17 March follow-up
email sent to volunteers, Ini explains that he wants to
make the orchestrated effort appear to be the work of
unaffiliated individuals. Thus he advises that "There is
no need to advertise the fact that we have these group
discussions."
Anticipating possible objections to CAMERA's scheme, Ini
conjectures that "Anti-Israel editors will seize on
anything to try to discredit people who attempt to
challenge their problematic assertions, and will be all
too happy to pretend, and announce, that a 'Zionist' cabal
(the same one that controls the banks and Hollywood?) is
trying to hijack Wikipedia."
But stealth and misrepresentation are presented as the
keys to success. Ini suggests that after volunteers sign
up as editors for Wikipedia they should "avoid editing
Israel-related articles for a short period of time." This
strategy is intended to "avoid the appearance of being
one-topic editors," thus attracting unwanted attention.
Ini counsels that volunteers "might also want to avoid,
for obvious reasons, picking a user name that marks you as
pro-Israel, or that lets people know your real name." To
further conceal the identity of CAMERA-organized editors,
Ini warns, "don't forget to always log in before making
[edits]. If you make changes while not logged in,
Wikipedia will record your computer's IP address" -- a
number that allows identification of the location of a
computer connected to the Internet.
A veteran Wikipedia editor, known as "Zeq," who according
to the emails is colluding with CAMERA, also provided
advice to CAMERA volunteers on how they could disguise
their agenda. In a 20 March email often in misspelled
English, Zeq writes, "You don't want to be precived [sic]
as a 'CAMERA' defender' on wikipedia [sic] that is for
sure." One strategy to avoid that is to "edit articles at
random, make friends not enemies -- we will need them
later on. This is a marathon not a sprint."
Zeq also identifies, in a 25 March email, another
Wikipedia editor, "Jayjg," whom he views as an effective
and independent pro-Israel advocate. Zeq instructs CAMERA
operatives to work with and learn from Jayjg, but not to
reveal the existence of their group even to him fearing
"it would place him in a bind" since "[h]e is very loyal
to the wikipedia [sic] system" and might object to
CAMERA's underhanded tactics.
"Uninvolved administrators"
The emphasis on secrecy is apparently not only to aid the
undetected editing of articles, but also to facilitate
CAMERA's takeover of key administrator positions in
Wikipedia.
For Zeq a key goal is to have CAMERA operatives elected as
administrators -- senior editors who can override the
decisions of others when controversies arise. When
disputes arise about hotly contested topics, such as
Israel and Palestine, often only an "uninvolved
administrator" -- one who is considered neutral because he
or she has not edited or written articles on the topic --
can arbitrate.
Hence, Zeq advises in a 21 March email that "One or more
of you who want to take this route should stay away from
any Israel realted [sic] articles for one month until they
[sic] interact in a positive way with 100 wikipedia [sic]
editors who would be used later to vote you as an
administrator."
Once these CAMERA operatives have successfully infiltrated
as "neutral" editors, they could then exercise their
privileges to assert their own political agenda.
In addition, Zeq suggests making deliberately provocative
edits to Palestine-related articles. He hopes that editors
he assumes are Palestinian will delete these changes, and
then CAMERA operatives could report them to administrators
so they could be sanctioned and have their editing
privileges suspended.
Passing propaganda as fact
Gilead Ini's 17 March email provides specific advice on
how to pass off pro-Israel propaganda or opinion as fact
meeting Wikipedia's strict guidelines:
"So, for example, imagine that you get rid of or modify a
problematic sentence in an article alleging that
'Palestinian [sic] become suicide bombers to respond to
Israel's oppressive policies.' You should, in parallel
leave a comment on that article's discussion page (either
after or before making the change). Avoid defending the
edit by arguing that 'Israel's policies aren't
'oppression,' they are defensive. And anyway Palestinians
obviously become suicide bombers for other reasons for
example hate education!' Instead, describe how this
sentence violates Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. One
of the core principles is that assertions should adhere to
a Neutral Point of View, usually abbreviated NPOV. (The
opposite of NPOV is POV, or Point of View, which is
basically another way of saying subjective statement, or
opinion.) So it would be best to note on the discussion
page that 'This sentence violates Wikipedia's NPOV policy,
since the description of Israel's policies as 'oppressive'
is an opinion. In addition, it is often noted by Middle
East experts that one of the reasons Palestinians decide
to become suicide bombers is hate education and
glorification of martyrdom in Palestinian society ...'"
In fact, there have been numerous studies debunking claims
about Palestinian "hate education," or "glorification of
martyrdom" causing suicide bombings (such as Dying to Win
by University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape)
though this claim remains a favorite canard of pro-Israel
activists seeking to distract attention from the effects
of Israel's occupation and other well-documented and
systematic human rights abuses in fueling violence.
Zeq specifically names articles targeted for this kind of
treatment including those on the 1948 Palestinian Exodus,
Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus, Hamas, Hizballah,
Arab citizens of Israel, anti-Zionism, al-Nakba, the
Palestinian people, and the Palestinian right of return.
Interestingly the CAMERA editors also target the article
on the early Islamic period concept of Dhimmi, a protected
status for non-Muslims which historically allowed Jews to
thrive in Muslim-ruled lands while other Jews were being
persecuted in Christian Europe. Pro-Israel activists have
often tried to portray the concept of Dhimmi as akin to
the Nuremberg laws in order to denigrate Muslim culture
and justify ahistorical Zionist claims that Jews could
never live safely in majority Muslim countries.
Also among the emails is a discussion about how to alter
the article on the massacre of Palestinian civilians in
the village of Deir Yassin by Zionist militiamen on 9
April 1948. Unable to debunk the facts of the massacre
outright, the CAMERA activists hunt for quotes from
"reputable historians" who can cast doubt on it. Their
strategy is not dissimilar from those who attempt to
present evolution, or global climate change as
"controversial" regardless of the weight of the scientific
evidence, simply because the facts do not accord with
their belief system.
Zeq has already made extensive edits to the Wikipedia
article on Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist
murdered by an Israeli soldier in the occupied Gaza Strip
on 16 March 2003. As a result of these and other edits Zeq
has himself been a controversial figure among Wikipedia
editors, suggesting his own stealth tactics may not be
working.
"We will go to war"
Zeq, however, counsels CAMERA operatives to be patient and
lie low until they build up their strength. "We will go to
war after we have build our army, equiped it trained
[sic]," he wrote on 9 April. "So please if you want to win
this war help us build ou[r] army. let's not just rush in
and achieve nothing, or abit more than nothing [sic]."
DOWNLOAD CAMERA'S EMAILS:
http://electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/080421-camera-wikipedia.pdf
...
Also see an article that appeared last year in the Jerusalem Post.
Leading Wikipedia editor to visit Israel
---------------------------------
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 8, 2007
---------------------------------
In an acknowledgement of the importance that the Internet encyclopedia
Wikipedia has in shaping opinion, the Foreign Ministry is bringing one
of its leading editors, David Shankbone, to Israel next week.
According to a communiqué put out by the ministry, Shankbone has
carried out dozens of interviews of US personalities for Wikipedia,
including presidential candidates, religious leaders, rock stars and
journalists. Shankbone will be visiting within the framework of a
delegation of technology writers being brought to Israel by the
Foreign Ministry and the America-Israel Friendship League.
Explaining the rationale for bringing Shankbone to Israel, David
Saranga, the spokesman at the consulate in New York, said: "More than
once we have faced editors connected to Israel that appear on
Wikipedia in English that do not represent the reality in Israel. We
decided to initiate a visit by Shankbone to describe Israeli reality
as it is."
Wikipedia, according to the Foreign Ministry, is the eighth largest
web site in the world, with some 60 million visitors a day, or some
14,000 hits a second.
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