Nohad Lahat, example of Wikipedia's bias

Posted:

2016-02-10

Tags:

politics israel palestine wikipedia

Often Wikipedia is an accurate source for information. But when it comes to everything related to Israel and Palestine it is not. This is because mot people editing those topics have an axe to grind. And the number of pro-Israel pundits and zealots who have time to sit twelve hours editing Wikipedia outnumbers the pro-Palestine ones by at least 5:1 and the result is very slanted coverage of some topics.

The bias is not noticable by the general public because most people don't have the required knowledge to detect it. But it is there. For one example, take a look at the Wikipedia page for Israeli MMA figher Noad Lahat.

Note that the box says that Noad Lahat was born June 8th, 1984 in Alfei Menashe, Israel. What's wrong with that? Let's locate Alfei Menashe on Google Maps:

Here is another map of its location:

As you can see, it is located a few kilometers southeast of Qalqiliya in the West Bank. In other words, it is not located in Israel! So why does Wikipedia continue to feature this incorrect and easily fixable error (just change "Alfei Menashe, Israel" to "Alfei Menashe, West Bank")?

The reason is the ongoing normalization of the occupation. The fact that a few hundred thousand Israelis live on occupied territory outside of Israel is played down. We are supposed to think that the border between Israel and the West Bank is fuzzy and not well-defined. If someone is trespassing on someone elses land, but that land doesn't have any defined borders, is it really trespassing?