A well-known fable tells of two frogs put on a sizzling frypan, one in already boiling oil and the other in slowly heating oil. Shocked by the sudden heat, the first frog leapt out and survived. The second, enjoying the gradual warmth, remained until it was too late to escape. This offers a helpful metaphor for understanding bias on the English Wikipedia. A platform designed to make shared knowledge accessible, Wikipedia has slowly drifted from its core value of neutrality and has become one-sided. This change occurred so subtly that the shift went unnoticed until its biases became entrenched, making it difficult to restore its credibility and trust. 

Wikipedia, a multilingual, open-source platform, was founded on the noble mission of enabling the public to participate actively in creating free and accessible information. Its vision, which embraces the idea of free knowledge, touches on a fundamental human value individually and collectively, as knowledge empowers us to actualize ourselves, confront global challenges, and safeguard our shared future. Through the collective pursuit and responsible use of knowledge, we can strive toward a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world. In so doing, we uphold freedom of thought, grounded in access to accurate and unbiased information.

While the pursuit of knowledge has long been a cornerstone of advanced societies, its misuse and manipulation by totalitarian and fascist entities have led humanity into some of its most hazardous moments, spreading antisemitism, racism, and misogyny under the guise of science and distorted claims of fact. 

Wikipedia is often heralded for its ideals of neutrality and free access to information; however, on sensitive and disputed topics, it has become a battleground on which competing narratives are fought, shaped, and sometimes distorted. This is exacerbated by the platform’s endorsement of anonymity and the absence of professional mediation mechanisms. The phenomenon is particularly evident in politically charged articles, especially those concerning Israel and the conflict, an arena in which ideological biases against Israel and sometimes against the Jewish people frequently undermine Wikipedia’s stated commitment to impartiality.^[1]

The World Jewish Congress report “Bias Against Israel” on Wikipedia, released in March 2024, documents the persistent and troubling patterns of anti-Israel bias on the English Wikipedia.^[2] Drawing on in-depth research, content analysis, and interviews with Israeli volunteer editors, the report reveals the way in which the platform’s core values of neutrality and open knowledge are undermined through biased language, concerted efforts to erase or distort content, and terminology that delegitimizes Israel. 

Ten months later, in January 2025, the Wikipedia community has taken some action to address the issue of biased editing, including the imposition of topic bans on six prominent, partisan antiIsrael editors. 

Additionally, in March 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation announced its acceptance of one of the key suggestions in the report, declaring that “to support the Wikimedia communities and reaffirm our commitment to neutrality,” it “will convene a working group of active editors, Trustees, researchers, and advisors to explore recommendations for common standards for NPOV^[3] policies that can protect Wikipedia, increase the integrity of the projects, and equip the volunteers trusted to administer these policies with more support.”^[4]

However, underlying biases, manipulation, and the use of Wikipedia as a platform for advancing one-sided narratives concerning Israel and the conflict remain a persistent challenge. The unresolved issue of restoring heavily manipulated articles and the deletion of entries that uniquely scrutinize Jewish people and the State of Israel, such as “Weaponization of antisemitism,” or “Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany” raises serious concerns. These pages, which have the potential to shape the perspectives of billions through Google search results and AI systems that rely on Wikipedia content, remain far from balanced or accurate; they are dangerously distorted.

The images accompanying this report, presented in the exhibition Manipulated History: Past

Version vs. Present Subversion—The Growing Bias Against Israel on Wikipedia aim to illustrate this phenomenon by showcasing side-by-side screenshots of two versions of seven articles, captured at different times, defining key historical movements, places, and events, most of which have long since concluded. Through these comparisons, the exhibition reveals that key information has been dramatically altered, demonstrating the way in which the portrayal of these articles has been manipulated to reinforce a one-sided perspective. It highlights the radicalization of ideas and concepts regarding Israel and conflict-related issues, highlighting which words were omitted from earlier versions and which were added in later ones. Also exposed is the way in which these changes subvert the truth and abandon neutrality in favor of deliberately biased content, a trend that has become entrenched over time.

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[1] See ADL, “Editing for Hate: How Anti-Israel and Anti-Jewish Bias Undermines Wikipedia’s

Neutrality,”2025, https://www.adl.org/resources/report/editing–hate–how–anti–israel–and–anti–jewish–biasundermines–wikipedias–neutrality.

[2] Aharoni Lir, 2024.

[3] Neutral Point of View 

[4] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2025/03/27/strengthening-wikipedias-neutral-point-of-view/.