Talk:Human Rights Team/Impact of the war in Gaza and Israel

The Wikimedia Foundation calls for internet connection, and access to knowledge, to be allowed without interruption in Gaza

"The Wikimedia Foundation calls for internet connection, and access to knowledge, to be allowed without interruption in Gaza" This is the translation of the title of the Wikimedia Foundation publication made in Hebrew See קרן ויקימדיה קוראת לאפשר חיבור לאינטרנט, וגישה לידע, בלי הפרעה בעזה.

While the short publication "Impact of the crisis in Gaza and Israel" on this page is balanced, the post in Hebrew blames the State of Israel, and greatly harmed the Wikipedians on the Hebrew Wikipedia.

You can read what the Hebrew Wikipedias think about the Hebrew publication of the Wikimedia Foundation at the link: Here on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) in Hebrew. You can use google translate to understand what they wrote. Hanay (talk) 19:18, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

User:CAshraf (WMF) Read This 10-month old is among the children still held captive or missing in Gaza on CNN. Updated 11:43 AM EST, Wed November 29, 2023.

Look at the picture of Kfir Bibas, put it on your table, and you will realize that the internet problems in Gaza are really unimportant compared to what the Hamas terrorists did and still doing. Hanay (talk) 07:13, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Please note that the Wikimedia Foundation is neither a political party nor a human rights organisation. I don't see any valid reasons for the Wikimedia Foundation to take a political stance that is unrelated to the Wikimedia movement.

A stable internet connection is important for people to access Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects (i.e. Knowledge). Thanks. SCP-2000 07:58, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

But this is what the Wikimedia Foundation did in its post in Hebrew. And now instead of making a substantive reference, you want the image to be deleted. Hanay (talk) 11:43, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

@Hanay: how about putting photos of the thousands that your occupation army killed in Gaza and in the west bank before and after Oct. 7th on your table, so that you realize that their lives is not less important than yours. Just stop it, stop pretending the victom. --Mervat (talk) 19:42, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

The simple difference is that Israel does not target civilians, Israel goes out of its way to protect civilians. Civilians are killed in Gaza for one reason - Hamas uses them as human shields. Hamas hides behind hospitals and schools, kindergartens and ambulances. Israeli citizens were killed for one reason - Hamas slaughtered, raped, murdered and burned to death. These are the facts, and any attempt to distort reality is identification with terrorism. Your colleagues from the Arabic Wikipedia do it well, when they deny the rape on October 7, and present it as "false Israeli propaganda".שמש מרפא (talk) 20:20, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Let me just absorb this: "Israel does not target civilians???", did the 20,000 civilians in Gaza kill themselves? Who are you trying to convince? where is the logic? what does "civilian" mean in your opinion? Mervat (talk) 20:27, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Hey,

Just wondering how a human right such as accessing Intenet can be ignored for any reason. A humanright is a humanright. Shame! Michel Bakni (talk) 20:28, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

@Hanay: What a huge fallacy you have committed! I don't understand how "the call of WMF for internet connection that Israeli government cuts off" relates to the ongoing conflict and its developments in Palestine and Irael. The presence of suffering to anyone in this conflict doesn't interfere with the call for access to knowledge. Your comment can only be understood by that you instigate the genocide that takes place in Gaza. All suffer. There are hundreds of babies were killed and more are killed now in Gaza (thousands of Palestinians have been killed over the years). WMF is a foundation for free knowledge and it doesn't concern with other considerations. Ahmed Naji ^Talk 20:21, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

أحمد ناجي, What 'information' are you talking about? Have you seen how there is a complete denial of the rape committed by Hamas? Did you see how Hamas gets a respectable platform in the Arab Wikipedia? Did you see how they blame Israel for the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital, And the Israeli version (approved by all the media and the US government)That this a errant rocket launch from within Gaza they present as "propaganda"? that they present the shocking rape of Israeli women as "false Israeli propaganda", despite the many evidences and testimonies presented by the media and human rights organizations?? Do you know that throughout the entire article about the October 7th attack there is no mention of killing citizens, and Hamas is presented as having only attacked soldiers and armed men? That they call the Gaza Strip and Tel Aviv (within the '67 borders, for those who don't know) "settlements"? Is that what you call 'information'? It's not information, in fact it's not even a deviation from NPOV. This is Holocaust denial days after it happened. As far as Arabic Wikipedia readers are concerned, it is not 'information' that is being withheld from them, but jihadist terrorist propaganda. Yes, this is the Arabic Wikipedia, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. שמש מרפא (talk) 21:22, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

@שמש מרפא You have committed the fallacy of irrelevant conclusion. What is the link between what you have said and "the WMF call for internet connection and access to knowledge to be allowed without interruption in Gaza"? Ahmed Naji ^Talk 21:36, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

@أحمد ناجي, It is very simple: it is very ridiculous for the Wikimedia Foundation that they are "concerned" about the inability of the residents of the Gaza Strip to get access to 'knowledge' while what they are getting is much closer to pro-Hamas propaganda than to 'knowledge'. If the Wikimedia Foundation wants to call the Arabic Wikipedia 'knowledge' they should first check in their backyard and find out if it is indeed objective information, or information at all. שמש מרפא (talk) 22:08, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Hello, all.

I understand that this is a very painful and difficult conversation, especially for those of you who are living it in your own neighborhood. What we see in our part of the world is horrific; some of you are losing friends and family and live with danger on a daily basis.

I’m Maggie Dennis; I hired Cameran and constituted the Human Rights Team, who are a wing of our Trust & Safety team. It’s important for me to explain what our Human Rights Team is here to do.

Their primary purpose is to provide assistance when the human rights of volunteers of Wikimedia are threatened due to their good faith activities on our sites. The whole team was hired from organizations that do human rights work in various contexts; they care deeply about human rights and the lives and safety of people in many contexts.

Secondarily, their job is to provide information for users who are targeted as Wikimedians or, indeed, for volunteers who face trauma for other reasons that they can use for their own protection. That is the reason this page and other online resources exist.

And finally, the team also helps support our commitment to minimizing any human rights issues we may cause in our own work - protecting children who contribute, for instance; advocating for laws that protect individuals from retaliation for the good faith sharing of knowledge online for another.

I understand that the images that have been placed on this page are shared in the context of a tragedy. However, I am in charge of Trust & Safety, and my attention was drawn to this post by a volunteer who came to view the page, drifted to the talk page, and was traumatized by the images. It is important to shine a light, but we also need safe spaces for those who are seeking help for trauma. I’m asking you, please, not to restore them.

The statement that is currently being discussed was authored by the Wikimedia Foundation, not any one team. I understand that it is difficult to strike a balance that pleases everyone when discussing such deeply painful subjects and thus recognize that the balance may feel wrong to some. If you have feedback on the Diff post, you can read here on how to share it. One of the best approaches might be to write to diff@wikimedia.org. If you choose to post something on that talk page instead, from the Trust & Safety perspective, I would ask you not to post the pictures there, either, for the safety of those who may be traumatized. We need to be sober and honest in reviewing information, but people do need an opportunity to decide what is safe for them to view under what circumstances–some who may see them are likely experiencing immediate loss.

If you have feedback on information provided on the attached page by the Human Rights Team, this is a good place to offer it. –Maggie Dennis (WMF) (talk) 22:29, 19 December 2023 (UTC)