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Story so far: Earlier in November, the page titled ‘Gaza Genocide’, hosted on Wikipedia, was locked. A small lock icon at the top right corner of the page restricted users from making edits to the page’s contents. The locked-down page made waves when Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales posted a statement disagreeing on how the term ‘genocide’ was applied to Gaza. He claimed, in his personal capacity, that the page failed to meet Wikipedia’s high standards and needed immediate attention. While the page exists on the platform in its locked-down form, debates continue across the world on how to classify the conflict.
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Why was Wikipedia’s Gaza genocide page locked?
The ‘Gaza Genocide’ page begins by stating: “The Gaza genocide is the ongoing, intentional, and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip carried out by Israel during the Gaza war. The genocidal acts include mass killings, starvation, infliction of serious bodily and mental harm, and preventing births.”
While multiple organisations and academics have described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide targeting civilians, pro-Israel supporters have pushed back against the use of the word as they claim that the militant organisation Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields and that Israel had a right to self-defence following the gruesome October 7 killings.
Protections on the locked-down page was enhanced by editors (both humans and bots) on July 2024 and May 2025, to prevent unvetted edits. More recently, it was locked on October 28 and November 4, so only verified editors with accounts older than 30 days and over 500 edits can access the page to make updates.
This is not the first time Wikipedia locked a page on a contentious topic. Thousands of such articles covering significant world events, key definitions, or celebrity figures have been temporarily locked in the past to prevent partisan edits by unvetted editors as well as acts of Wikipedia “vandalism” that range from funny to hateful.
Not surprisingly, there have been hundreds of edits made to the ‘Gaza Genocide’ page on Wikipedia in recent days and weeks. Many of these are simple formatting and punctuation edits while more controversial changes deal with how to include and interpret sources, or even revise other contributors’ edits.
What did Wikipedia’s co-founder say?
Mr. Wales posted a personal statement in a talk page that discussed the nature of edits made to the ‘Gaza Genocide’ page as well as the reasoning behind the use of the term ‘genocide.’ There, he criticised how Israel’s actions were being classified as a “genocide” and instead urged a correction to present this as a contested allegation.
Citing neutrality as the basis for his opinion, Mr. Wales said the article “fails to meet our high standards and needs immediate attention.”
Furthermore, Mr. Wales said he was leading a group that was looking into issues of neutrality in Wikipedia across articles and topic areas, including “Zionism.” He also claimed that much more work was needed, though he clarified that he was only speaking in a personal capacity.
“I assume good faith of everyone who has worked on this Gaza “genocide” article. At present, the lede and the overall presentation state, in Wikipedia’s voice, that Israel is committing genocide, although that claim is highly contested,” Mr. Wales stated, later noting, “A neutral approach would begin with a formulation such as: “Multiple governments, NGOs, and legal bodies have described or rejected the characterization of Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.””
Though Mr. Wales’ opinion is not a definitive decision or judgment, it has ignited debate across the Wikipedia editors community as they re-examine how they are collectively working to document Israel’s violence against Palestinians.
Has a genocide in Gaza been confirmed?
A UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry reported on September 16 that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The investigation covers events since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israeli civilians, and Israel’s military actions since then.
The Commission reported that Israel carried out four of the five genocidal acts as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including “killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”
The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) also published a resolution in August 2025 stating that Israel carried out war crimes and genocide, noting that its actions “have not only been directed against the Hamas group responsible for these, but have also targeted the entire Gazan population”.
The Human Rights Watch stated in December 2024 that “Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide” by throttling Palestinian civilians’ access to water.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 67,173 people have been killed as of October 7 this year, two years after Israel’s offensive on Hamas began. This figure includes 20,179 children, who account for about 30% of the total, reported Reuters.
Published – November 22, 2025 09:40 am IST
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