Wikipedia’s left-wing editors have declared the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish civil rights group that has become increasingly partisan over the past decade, an unreliable source on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Wikipedia’s editors declared that the Anti-Defamation League cannot be trusted to give reliable information on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and they overwhelmingly said the ADL is an unreliable source on antisemitism,” CNN reported on Wednesday.
Wikipedia editors, most of whom volunteer, voted to label the ADL a “generally unreliable” source last week, especially on the issue of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The ADL has consistently defended Israel for decades, and emphatically so following the October 7 terror attack last year.
It has long been resented by anti-Israel groups.
On the issue of antisemitism, the ADL’s most important issue, Wikipedia editors will also vote on whether or not it should be considered a reliable source.
“The editors overwhelmingly support that label but continue to debate the decision, which could ultimately deal a blow to the credibility of the leading source of research and information on antisemitism,” noted CNN.
The Wikipedia editors explained their position in an online forum where they said that the ADL’s function as both an advocacy group and a research organization prevents it from giving unbiased information on Israel and antisemitism.
“The ADL is heavily biased regarding Israel/Palestine to the point of often acting as a pro-Israel lobbying organization,” wrote an editor with the username Loki. (Loki is the Norse god of lies.) “This can and does compromise its ability to accurately report facts regarding people and organizations that disagree with it on this issue, especially non-Zionist or anti-Zionist Jews and Jewish organizations.”
Other editors said that Wikipedia had failed to provide evidence that the ADL’s advocacy work clouded its ability to provide accurate information about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The ADL called the decision “disturbing.”
“It is deeply disturbing that the many editors who flagged the severe flaws and inaccuracies in both the reasoning and sources being used in this campaign to delegitimize ADL are being ignored,” an ADL spokesman said in a statement. “They have provided point by point refutations, grounded in factual citations, to every claim made, but apparently facts no longer matter.”
The ADL further called the decision “devastating for the Jewish community and society.”
Some Wikipedia editors said that the ADL had offered too broad a definition on antisemitism by including anti-Zionism.
“ADL’s leadership has taken a much more aggressive stance than most academic researchers in blurring the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism,” John Hopkins University Professor James Loefler told CNN. “It’s clear from reading the Wikipedia editors’ conversation that they are heavily influenced by the ADL leadership’s comments.”
Wikipedia editors cited a statement from Jonathan Greenblatt at an ADL “State of Hate” event in March where he said, “Let’s make this very clear: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Anti-Zionism is a negation of Jewish history, a denial of Jewish humanity.”
One Wikipedia editor with the username Sameboat claimed that Greenblatt’s statement demonstrated the ADL’s “skewed views and manipulative presentation on the IP (Israel-Palestine) topic and thus (is) highly unreliable.”
The ADL might once have had defenders from both sides of the aisle, but Greenblatt has done much to alienate conservatives.
As Breitbart’s Joel Pollak recently noted, the ADL has become increasingly partisan over the past decade.
For instance, in 2021, current ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called for the firing of Fox News host Tucker Carlson after Carlson suggested that Democrats were importing vast numbers of illegal immigrants to increase their voting base. (Ironically, Greenblatt had nothing to say about the many antisemitic statements of MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton, on whose show he has often appeared.)
Wikipedia also labels Russian state media, Fox News political reporting, and Amazon reviews as being “unreliable.”
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