At the Wikipedia 2009 Conference in Tel Aviv Sunday, Israeli researchers delineated for Wikimedia director Sue Gardner the variety of ways in which the encyclopedia’s treatment of Israel-related issues is objectionable. Among the problems – maybe chief among them – is Wikipedia’s Hamas entry:
Hamas (Øماس ḤamÄs, an acronym of Øركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-MuqÄwamat al-IslÄmiyyah, meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement”) is an Islamic Palestinian socio-political organization which includes a paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Notably absent from the opening paragraphs: the word terrorist. Only at the end of the introduction do we learn that “Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, and the United States.” Listed first among Hamas’s goals:
. . . to create an Islamic state in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, a goal which combines Palestinian nationalism with Islamist objectives. Hamas’s 1988 charter calls for the replacement of Israel and the Palestinian Territories with an Islamic Palestinian state.
Replacement? That’s a pretty word for murder and obliteration. Ms. Gardner told Haaretz:
she is “quite comfortable” with the mistakes on the Web site. “I know that more or less the same mistakes can be found in the New York Times,” she explained. . . .”Wikipedia is just another mainstream news medium [which] will never say anything as Wikipedia. It will only quote relatively well-respected sources, including other media. So it’s natural for Wikipedia to reflect public discourse as it fluctuates, and news is the first draft of history.”
If you’re going to be getting your first drafts of history here, you’ll want to be backing them up with a few other sources, just as you would if you were getting your news from the New York Times.
