An anti-Israel Wikipedia editor was indefinitely banned on Monday from editing articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The editor, known as “TarnishedPath,” has made more than 54,000 edits on the site and was sanctioned through Wikipedia’s Arbitration Enforcement process, in which administrators enforce rulings issued by the site’s Arbitration Committee, Wikipedia’s highest dispute-resolution body in contentious topic areas.
TarnishedPath and another editor, “Sean.hoyland,” were accused of repeatedly defending “M.Bitton,” an anti-Israel editor who was recently banned from Wikipedia, and, in so doing, of violating Wikipedia policy against turning the site into “a battleground between factions.”
One administrator initially imposed a 90-day ban on TarnishedPath from editing articles related to the conflict over conduct on the talk page for Wikipedia’s main Zionism entry, separate from the original complaint. After reviewing the editor’s broader conduct, other administrators escalated the sanction to an indefinite topic ban.
Sean.hoyland received an informal warning, a notice from administrators cautioning that further problematic conduct could lead to sanctions.
TarnishedPath can appeal the sanction, but the editor has not yet done so.
Shlomit Lir, a University of Haifa researcher who specializes in Wikipedia, told JNS that “the English Wikipedia article on Zionism remains one of the most contested and deeply problematic entries in this topic area.”
She said it was “encouraging” that Wikipedia administrators were recognizing “patterns of battleground editing, procedural obstruction and attempts to flatten or distort the historical meaning of Zionism.”
“This is an important, if overdue, step toward protecting a knowledge space that should represent historical complexity rather than politicized framing under the appearance of neutrality,” she told JNS.
