Wikipedia Censors Israel War News Site
By
Herb Brandon Jerusalem----July 22.....Wikipedia, which spams itself as "the encyclopedia that anyone can edit," has again censored the Israel Government Press Office accredited Israel News Agency. "I believe that this is the third or fourth attempt by the management of Wikipedia to delete articles about the Israel News Agency," said publisher Joel Leyden. Leyden, who also had an article about himself in Wikipedia, has also been censored several times. "I truly do not care whether a bio of me exists in Wikipedia or not, what I am concerned about is how Wikipedia management ignores its own community guidelines. That Wikipedia management which consists of two people - Jimbo Wales and Danny Wool - delete articles unilaterally defying their own official community policy guidelines process." "To delete the Israel News Agency during a time of war, a news agency which is distributing critical Israel government information from the Israel Prime Minister's Office, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israel Defense Forces, was the first on-line source of news coming from Israel in 1995, reaches over 60 million people worldwide, carries exclusive material and has over 85,000 references on Google Web, is spitting in the face of free speech," says Leyden. Wikipedia executive Danny Wool has unilaterally deleted the Israel News Agency and purged Joel Leyden from Wikipedia pages at least three times each. "Danny Wool then uses several "sockpuppets" (the same user who uses several other computers and IP addresses) to vote "delete" in Wikipedia deletion reviews. One such sockpuppet of Danny Wool is an anonymous user named "Slimvirgin" who consistently votes as a rubber stamp of Danny Wool. Wool and Wales also employ "fixing" votes for or against content by setting limits on who can edit the votes on content that they do not want in their so-called "encyclopedia." Votes for which "the encyclopedia that anyone can edit" does not permit editors to vote on. Third, they enlist other Jews to do the dirty work for them against Leyden and the Israel News Agency. A "Capo" tactic taken right out of the pages of World War 2 Germany. Feminist Gili Bar-Hillel, a translator of questioned reputation in Tel Aviv has "stalked" and harassed Leyden since he first posted that the City of Ra'anana in Israel practiced gender bias discrimination in their child welfare department. Bar-Hillel has attempted to attack both the INA and Leyden's reputation at every twist and turn demanding to know everything about the INA and Leyden. Bar-Hillel went so far as to question Leyden's Israel Government Press Credentials suggesting that they were "forged." She even demanded to know Leyden's private Israeli security information to be disclosed on-line for all to view. She was promptly joined by a Josh Gordon and then a circus of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian and Islamic supporters who were thrilled to see Israeli Gili Bar-Hillel attack another Israeli who serves as a media consultant to the Israel government. "When people ask me why Wikipedia is obsessed with taking out the Israel News Agency which provides a back-up for information coming from the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command I have really been stuck for an answer," says Leyden. "Wool is Jewish and states that he lived in Israel for 15 years and Bar-Hillel is an Israeli living in Tel Aviv, but their mammoth egos apparently overshadow Israel's security." Leyden is quick to mention how Wikipedia management first embraced the Israel News Agency and Joel Leyden by featuring a story that the INA had first written about Wikipedia in their "Signpost" department. But once Leyden dared to criticize Wikipedia in the INA article Wikipedia: A Nightmare Of Libel and Slander stating that the so-called "encyclopedia" lacked accountability, credibility, objectivity and overtly censored many topics and people including famed, respected US attorney Alan Dershowitz, Wikipedia management went hysteric. They did all they could to rid the Wikipedia pages of the Israel News Agency and Joel Leyden. "Why would an on-line encyclopedia desire to censor a Western and democratic media outlet which reaches over 60 million people worldwide? Why would they want to do it during a time when Israelis in Haifa, Nahariya, Tiberius and Sderot are being murdered through Hezbollah Katusha terror rockets coming from Lebanon and Qassams blasting from Gaza? That Wikipedia describes terrorists from Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Iran and Syria as "militants", one can only suspect that it boils down to latent anti-Semitism. And this is an issue for which the Israel News Agency is now asking the public to take up with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Watchdog sites such as Wikitruth and The Wikipedia Review (which has also been censored from Wikipedia) were quick to point out the repeated censorship of the Israel News Agency. But Leyden and the Israel News Agency are in good company when it comes to being libeled and slandered by Wikipedia. Recently the world media was in an uproar over how Wikipedia inaccurately described the death of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay. This is how the Washington Post described the Wikipedia fiasco. The Israel News Agency, Alan Dershowitz, Kenneth Lay, countless members of the US Congress and Senate are weak examples of Wikipedia atrocities when one examines how Wikipedia accused USA Today editor John Seigenthaler of murdering Robert and John Kennedy. Seigenthaler stated: "I have no idea whose sick mind conceived the false, malicious "biography" that appeared under my name for 132 days on Wikipedia, the popular, online, free encyclopedia whose authors are unknown and virtually untraceable." He concluded a USA Today editorial saying: "When I was a child, my mother lectured me on the evils of "gossip." She held a feather pillow and said, "If I tear this open, the feathers will fly to the four winds, and I could never get them back in the pillow. That's how it is when you spread mean things about people." For me, that pillow is a metaphor for Wikipedia." Wikipedia has many volunteer editors and administrators who do a great job. Now these same good people must take back the promise which was made to them by Jimbo Wales and Danny Wool of creating a "citizens media." As long as Wikipedia serves as a highly destructive tool which can censor Israel news and information during a time of war, as long as Wikipedia continues to libel and slander countless good and innocent people, the Israel News Agency will stand side by side with WikiTruth, The Wikipedia Review, The Village Voice, Reuters and dozens of other watchdogs and media outlets to expose Wikipedia's dangerous and damaging actions," says Leyden. "If people can't edit Wikipedia from the inside, they will shred it apart from the outside. And that is exactly what the world press is doing today. No respected journalist or academic would dream of taking material from Wikipedia in its current, corrupted format," said Leyden. When asked if he feels somewhat like David verses Golaith in confronting Wikipedia, Leyden responds: "The Israel News Agency was around before Wikipedia, it will be around after Wikipedia. Good always triumphs over evil - and Wikipedia which has harmed so many good people will soon see its own demise. You can't keep treating people as if they were dirt, especially when those people are your very own Wikipedia volunteer editors and administrators."
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