Wikipedia’s page on Israel now unequivocally states that the country is committing genocide, despite the fact that there is no formal legal consensus among nations or international courts that this is the case.
This was first reported by JNS, but was independently assessed by The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
The edit was made on December 11 and has not been reversed despite extensive discussion between editors. The section appears at the end of the third paragraph in the top section of the page.
Before the change, the section read, “Israel’s practices in its occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn sustained international [criticism], along with accusations from human rights organizations and UN officials that it has committed crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Palestinians during the Gaza war.”
The wording acknowledged that accusations of genocide have been leveled, but did not present it as fact.
As of December 11, the section now reads, “Whether to state that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians has drawn sustained international criticism. Experts, human rights organizations, and UN officials have described Israel’s actions as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Following the October 7 attacks in 2023, Israel began committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” This links to the page on “Gaza genocide.”
Wikipedia founder: Neutrality needs to be improved
This “Gaza genocide” page has also raised concerns. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said it fails to meet the website’s standards and is an example of how neutrality needs to be improved. “This article fails to meet our high standards and needs immediate attention,” Wales said in November.
In August, the US Congress’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began investigating Wikipedia for the possible influence of nation-state actors and bad actors in editing articles related to Israel.
The decision to investigate was at least partially influenced by a March 2025 report by the Anti-Defamation League, which found that at least 30 editors were altering Wikipedia to introduce antisemitic and anti-Israel biases, and that the 30 editors edited twice as much over the last 10 years compared to their colleagues and were 18 times more active in communications than other editors.
The International Court of Justice ruled that the risk of genocide is “plausible” but did not rule that genocide occurred. Likewise, the International Criminal Court has pursued charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, but not pursued formal charges of genocide as of late 2025.