A woman walks past the US Department of Justice Building, in Washington, DC, Dec. 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Al Drago

The US Justice Department under President Donald Trump has launched an investigation into the nonprofit that operates the popular Wikipedia website, amid accusations that the online encyclopedia has spread “propaganda” and allowed “foreign actors to manipulate information” while maintaining a systemic bias against Israel.

Edward Martin, the interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation on Thursday, warning the organization that its nonprofit status could be jeopardized for possibly violating its “legal obligations and fiduciary responsibilities” under US law.

“[T]he public is entitled to rely on a reasonable expectation of neutrality, transparency, and accountability in [Wikimedia’s] operations and publications,” Martin wrote. 

“It has come to my attention that the Wikimedia Foundation, through its wholly owned subsidiary Wikipedia, is allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public,” Trump’s top prosecutor in the US capital continued. “Wikipedia is permitting information manipulation on its platform, including the rewriting of key, historical events and biographical information of current and previous American leaders, as well as other matters implicating the national security and the interests of the United States. Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission.”

Martin noted that top search engines such as Google prioritize Wikipedia results and that artificial intelligence (AI) platforms receive Wikipedia data to train large-language models, arguing that anti-American misinformation pushed by the website could have a widespread insidious effect on large populations.

Wikipedia has been embroiled in controversy over allegations that its editors have spearheaded campaigns to defame Israel, casting doubt over the site’s commitment to providing information on controversial subjects in a factual and neutral manner. A group of high-ranking Wikipedia editors has engaged in an elaborate and systematic effort to depict the Jewish state’s history in an overtly negative light, according to investigative reports by Pirate Wires and Jewish Journal.

The cohort of Wikipedia editors has softened the image of Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas through removing any mention of their 1988 charter, which calls for the complete massacre of Jews and elimination of Israel. The editors also edited an article on Zionism, describing the movement for Jewish self-determination as “an ethnocultural nationalist movement” which was “pursued through the colonization of Palestine.”

“Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible,” the Wikipedia article on Zionism read. 

Though the editors have steadily embedded an anti-Israel bias for years, efforts ramped up shortly after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, according to researchers and investigative journalists. The group, for example, added an article titled “Gaza Genocide” in November 2024, heavily implying that Israel has waged a campaign of ethnic extermination in the Gaza enclave. 

“According to a United Nations special committee, Amnesty International, and other experts and human rights organizations, Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people during its ongoing invasion and bombing of the Gaza Strip as part of the Gaza war,” the article read. 

The site has also published an article titled Israeli Apartheid, which claims that the Jewish state has built “a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and to a lesser extent in Israel proper.”

Several of the most controversial articles regarding Israel have been placed under “extended confirmed protection” which prohibits anyone, outside of high-ranking Wikipedia editors, from making edits. 

Last month, the Anti-Defamation League published a report titled “Editing for Hate: How Anti-Israel and Anti-Jewish Bias Undermines Wikipedia’s Neutrality,” which argued that a group of “malicious” Wikipedia editors have inserted anti-Israel bias onto the site, oftentimes violating the organization’s neutrality policies in the process. 

“Most readers assume Wikipedia is a reliable online encyclopedia, but in reality, it has become a biased platform manipulated by agenda-driven editors on many topics,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

The Wikimedia Foundation disputed the findings of the report. “Though our preliminary review of this report finds troubling and flawed conclusions that are not supported by the Anti-Defamation League’s data, we are currently undertaking a more thorough and detailed analysis,” a Wikimedia spokesperson said of the findings.

In his letter, Martin requested documents and information to answer several questions about the foundation’s conduct.

The post Wikipedia Nonprofit Status Under Scrutiny From US Justice Department Amid Claims of Systemic Anti-Israel Bias first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Skyline of Kyoto at night. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A hotel in the Japanese city of Kyoto defended itself last week after an Israeli guest informed the Israeli embassy in Japan that staff had insisted that he sign a statement saying he had not engaged in war crimes, prompting a visit from officials at the city’s Medical and Health Center.

The unnamed Israeli traveler, a member of the Jewish state’s Navy reserves and a combat medic, told the Israeli publication Ynet that after showing his passport to check-in at the Wind Villa Guesthouse, “the clerk handed me this form and told me that without signing it, I wouldn’t be allowed to check in.” He called the statement “ridiculous and absurd,” noting that he told the clerk, “We don’t kill women and children. Why would we do that?”

The tourist initially resisted signing until being pressured to do so, saying that “in the end, I decided to sign it because I have nothing to hide,” and that “the statement is true — I did not commit any war crimes, and Israeli soldiers do not commit war crimes. I signed because I didn’t want to create problems, and because this form means nothing.”

The hotel posted the document on X titled “Pledge of Non-Involvement in War Crimes” and then sought to explain its company policy over a series of nine threaded, Japanese-language posts on the social media platform.

The pledge requires guests to sign “I have never committed war crimes,” and then the form offers such examples as “attacks on civilians (children, women, etc.)” and “sexual, violence, forced displacement, or looting.”

In addition, the hotel wants those staying to affirm “I pledge to continue complying with international law and humanitarian law and to never engage in war crimes in any form.”

Wind Villa disputed that it required guests to sign or that it singled out its customer because of his nationality.

“1) We ask all guests who are suspected of having committed war crimes to sign a pledge. 2) It is not discriminatory because it is not only targeted at Israelis,” the hotel wrote on X. “3) Filling out the form is optional, and not filling it out will not mean you will be denied accommodation.”

Wind Villa further justified its actions on the basis that “Israel has a universal conscription system, and the possibility that young men in particular will be involved in military operations after Oct. 8, 2023, cannot be ignored,” referring to the day after Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel and launched the current war in Gaza. It also stated that “so far, there have been no guests who have refused to fill out the pledge form, and there have been no cases of guests being refused accommodation. Therefore, there is no violation of the Inns and Hotels Act.”

The Wind Villa is not the only hotel to become embroiled in controversy after allegedly discriminating against Israelis amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Last year, for example, an Israeli family visiting Paris was denied service at the Novotel Paris Porte de Versailles after an attendant noticed their Israeli passport.

The post Japanese Hotel Asks Israeli Guest to Sign Pledge Denying Involvement in War Crimes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat gestures during an interview with Reuters at the 13th WTO ministerial conference, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Abdel Hadi Ramahi

Israel has proposed revamping its four-decade-old free trade agreement with the United States, its economy minister said on Monday, as it looks to head off tariffs from its closest ally.

An upgraded trade pact would ease restrictions on data sharing that would enable significant collaboration, Economy Minister Nir Barkat told Reuters at a conference in Jerusalem.

He said Israel had already agreed to several requests, which included lifting tariffs on US agricultural goods.

Most US goods are already exempt from Israeli tariffs under a 1985 trade deal. The US. is Israel‘s biggest trading partner with bilateral trade worth an estimated $37 billion in 2024, according to US trade data. Last year, Israel had a $7.4 billion trade surplus with the United States.

President Donald Trump’s administration this month announced sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, including a 17 percent levy on Israeli imports, before saying there would be a 90-day pause with a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports to allow for trade negotiations.

Prior to the sweeping tariffs announcement, Israel said it would lift all remaining import duties on US goods and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump in Washington.

The post Israel Favors Upgrading US Free Trade Deal, Economy Minister Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.