Wikipedia is a free multilingual online encyclopedia. Anyone with Internet access can gather information or provide data on any topic. The platform is highly collaborative and has grown exponentially since its inception in January 2001. People use it for multiple reasons and have probably assigned it too much credit, running the risk of seeing it as the authority on any topic. I have used Wikipedia occasionally to check a birth date, place of birth, or basic event information, but I have boundaries in place, and so should everybody. To give it some perspective, when I was in seminary, I was required to provide ten book sources for each Wikipedia source I wished to use.
It is one thing to lack some of the details that can be gathered in other books or sources. Still, it is entirely different when information is altered to fulfill a different agenda that has all the markings of historical revisionism. Wikipedia defines itself as a safe platform where truth is shared. From their site, we learn that ” In the age of AI, access to verifiable facts is crucial. Wikipedia is at the heart of online information, powering everything from your personal searches to emerging AI technologies.
Furthermore, Wikipedia claims its standards are as follows: “Anyone can edit Wikipedia’s text, references, and images. The quality of content is more important than who contributes it. The content must conform with Wikipedia’s policies, including verifiable by published reliable sources. “Contributions based on personal opinions, beliefs, personal experiences, unreviewed research, libelous material, and copyright violations are not allowed and will not remain.” Are they holding up their end of the bargain? Well, I’m not so sure. It appears that recently, Wikipedia decided to adjust some of its definitions and take sides, especially regarding the topic of Israel and the Middle East.
It started in June when Wikipedia quietly rewrote its definition of Zionism. The word is not new, but recently, it has made many people angry. Its etymology has slowly shifted over the last eight decades from positive and hopeful to negative, colonialist and racist.
Zionism can be defined beyond the religious and biblical boundaries because it has political and cultural aspects. The word Zion comes from the Hebrew tzion, a reference to Jerusalem and often, by extension, to the Land of Israel itself (first mentioned in II Samuel 5:7.) The terms “Zionism” and “Zionist” were coined in 1890 by Jewish activist Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937), who also played an essential part in the first Zionist Congress held in 1897.
Redefining Zionism
In 2004, Wikipedia provided a definition for Zionism that was as acceptable and unbiased as that platform could give. It stated, “Zionism is a political movement among Jews holding that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland….The word ‘Zionist’ derives from the word ‘Zion,’ being one of the names of Jerusalem, as mentioned in the Bible. To diaspora Jews, Zion has been a symbol of the Holy Land and of their return to it, as promised by God in Biblical prophecies.” It was a basic definition, but “a political movement toward a national homeland” is a good start.
Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban defined Zionism as follows, “Zionism is nothing more — but also nothing less — than the Jewish people’s sense of origin and destination in the land linked eternally with its name.”
While the media and anti-Zionist factions slowly changed the definition, Wikipedia held on to its 2004 definition. Pressure rose, and wokeness prevailed—so much so that in June 2024, the online “encyclopedia” quietly redefined the word.
On Wikipedia’s 2024 page on Zionism, the definition was changed drastically to read as follows: Zionism is an ethno-cultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century and aimed for the establishment of a Jewish state through the colonization of a land outside Europe. With the rejection of alternate proposals for a Jewish state, it eventually focused on the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, a region corresponding to the Land of Israel in Judaism, and of central importance in Jewish history. Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible. Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism became Israel’s national or state ideology.
Words and phrases such as ethnocultural nationalist movement, colonization, rejection of alternate proposals for a Jewish state, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible paint a picture of a people group stealing land by force and killing many people in the process, which is precisely what most of the world is accusing Israel of.
Redefining Who is a Jew
Wikipedia even questions original Jewish ethnicity, when they state, “the application of the Biblical concepts of Jews as the chosen people and the Promise Land” in Zionism, particularly to secular Jews, requires the belief that modern Jews are the primary descendants of biblical Jews and Israelites.”
It is subtle, but what is implied is that one has to “believe” that the Jews of today are the true descendants of biblical Judean Jews. This wouldn’t be much of a challenge without the existence of the conspiracy theory about Jews being descendants of 9th-century Eastern European Khazar converts to Judaism. As ludicrous as it sounds, it is a real thing, and books have been published on the topic. We must keep in mind that once people believe that today’s Jews are not the natural descendants of Judean Jews, it becomes easy and even logical to accuse them of stealing Palestinian land and colonizing it for the “illegal Jewish State.”
- Redefining Genocide
Along with racism and colonialism, Zionism is often associated with genocide. The genocide of the Palestinian people, that is! This claim has been used at least since 1948, when Israel was reborn as a modern nation that became known as the nakba, or catastrophe, in Arabic. The word genocide didn’t exist before WWII. It was coined by a Polish lawyer and first used in 1944.
Hitler’s attempt at destroying all Jews falls into that category according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), which has established five criteria: - Killing members of the group.
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Wikipedia just added “Palestine” to its definition of “Genocide of Indigenous people,” leading their readers to assume and accept that as the fact that Israelis are freely killing innocent Palestinians. The claim that the 2023-24 war in Gaza constitutes a genocide seems to ignore the fact that Hamas started the war and that it is indeed a war, and wars always lead to casualties. This is not meant to be an excuse to kill people, but flipping the narrative without facts is not the solution; it is the problem. Hitler was committing genocide; Israel is not!
People worldwide consult Wikipedia, like the “Bible,” for factual truth and historical accuracy. A simple overview of its agenda-driven revisions on Zionism, Jewishness and Palestine will suffice to prove otherwise. Rest assured that more revisions will be added.
Our youth–and, to an extent, the previous generation– have been conditioned for instant data retrieval and instant internet gratification, and Wikipedia provides that service with flying colors. In this new age of wokism and AI, we are increasingly finding ourselves at the mercy of those who change the narrative so that they can redefine the world we live in, and control it. Wikipedia appears to be at the helm of that effort, and the burden of fact-checking is on all of us, so, in the words of a famous Russian proverb wisely quoted by President Ronald Reagan, “Trust but verify!” In the age of digital media, books are starting to look really appealing again.
