The world is Wiki-drama specific to the sad conflict in the Middle East opens another chapter with the indef block of pro-Israel editors here: "Jiujitsuguy and Eric1985 blocked indefinitely for off-wiki canvassing regarding Israel/Palestine".

Turns out Jujitsuguy (aka Ari Lieberman) posts a rant about bias on Wikipedia on a blog, and then also writes an article about it. Not a lot of subterfuge there, when you compare this. I'm sure there's more.

I have to say that this is an area in which I find WP's policies especially laughable, almost as absurd as their "sockpuppetry" policies, perhaps more so. Does anyone honestly believe that political partisans (of whatever particular side) won't collaborate offline to manipulate the putative "encyclopedia"? Don't be absurd. They are banning these guys for being comparatively open about something that goes on in secret all the time.

Jayjg got topic-banned from I-P, in part, for the "watch my back" email , but of course he continues to edit on related topics and give aid and comfort to collaborating partisans. The same can be said for two dozen other editors. If the opposing side(s) aren't doing it, it is only because they are less well-organized.

This is a signal, but not of a change, of things staying the same. The punishment is for being caught.

That's because the actual crime is bad PR, not harming the project, which is most likely already irreparably damaged.

This overlaps a bit with the other thread. E.g. here

http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&sh...ndpost&p=249032

Or here where I pointed out wikibias was Eric1985.
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&sh...ndpost&p=248592

Eric has responded, and brings up coverage of the topic by Israel National News and Honest Reporting.


Israel National News is quite fond of David "Appletree" and the JIDF, and the link to Honest Reporting blog includes Andre Oboler's response to wikipedia's response. Oboler is also chummy with "Appletree", and also has written about him on several occasions.

Of course Oboler, INN and Honest Reporting pay scant attention when "Appletree" says things like

Appletree is a big fat spider linking various Zionist groupings. One of the most interesting examples is here where Jonathan Hoffman, the vice-chair of the biggest Zionist group in the British Isles defending Appletree's use of the logo of the neo-Nazi Kahane movement. The logo appeared in the bottom corner of the picture submitted by Appletree to this article in the Jewish Chronicle. The Kahane movement is outlawed in Israel and the US as a terrorist and racist grouping and star members have included Baruch Goldstein, responsible for the massacre in Hebron, and Yigal Amir who shot Yitzhak Rabin.

Your source seems to be a comment posted to a discussion page by Peter Cohen (his WP user name is Peter cohen) who is very active in the Wikipedia's I/P disputes. He is nobody's idea of an unbiased, or reliable, source for information on matters dealing with Israel and Palestine.

Yes, Meir Kahane's Kach movement was very extreme. It should be noted that Israel banned the Kach party for its extremism. Sadly, in Gaza voters put their extremists in charge of the government.