LONDON: Wikipedia has defended its decision to classify the Anti-Defamation League as an unreliable source on Israel’s war on the Palestinians.
The controversy erupted earlier this month when editors of Wikipedia, one of the world’s most visited websites, determined the ADL as “generally unreliable regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The ADL criticized the decision, accusing Wikipedia of “stripping the Jewish community of the right to defend itself from the hatred that targets our community.”
“As leading communal organisations, we express our concern and dismay by Wikipedia’s attack on ADL’s reliability on the topic of antisemitism and other issues of central concern to the Jewish community,” the ADL stated.
The letter was signed by more than 40 Jewish organizations, including the American Friends of Likud, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the American Zionist Movement.
In the letter addressed to Wikipedia’s parent company, the Wikimedia Foundation, the ADL called for an immediate investigation into “this decision and the motivation behind it.” It argued that Wikipedia’s decision could be used “as a cover to perpetuate antisemitism,” putting the “entire community at risk.”
The Wikimedia Foundation, however, issued a statement on Wednesday supporting its editors’ decision and the volunteer-led processes that “ensure that neutral, reliable information is available for all.”
“This independent relationship is crucial to ensuring Wikipedia remains neutral and free from institutional bias. The Foundation has not, and does not, intervene in decisions made by the community about the classification of a source,” the statement read.
It explained that the decision to classify the ADL as “generally unreliable” followed a two-month open discussion involving 120 volunteers. The discussion and the results that led to the decision remain publicly accessible.
The Wikimedia Foundation also stressed that “contrary to what several media have incorrectly implied,” the ADL “remains a generally reliable source on Wikipedia. However, this was outside of the topic of the Israel/Palestine conflict,” and the body could be cited across other fields, such as the definition of antisemitism, although “with some considerations.”
The ADL has faced intense scrutiny since the beginning of Israel’s latest war for its rigid definition of antisemitism, which led to criticism over the organization’s decision to classify demonstrations featuring “anti-Zionist chants and slogans” as antisemitic.
The CEO of the 100-year-old organization, Jonathan Greenblatt, has been accused of propagating conspiracy theories and falsely comparing US college protest movements to Iran proxies.
