Hamas–UNRWA Holocaust dispute: what Wikipedia removed
The 2009 dispute in which Hamas, which governs Gaza, denounced UNRWA’s plan to teach Holocaust history, calling the Holocaust “a lie made up by the Zionists.” Through October 6 2023 the opening called it the “Militant Islamic movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.” The word appears nowhere in the article today; the opening now calls Hamas “the Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement… the de-facto government in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip.” A reader today learns Hamas is described as Gaza’s government and not that Wikipedia’s own opening once called it a militant movement.
The word “militant” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today it appears nowhere in the article at all, references included. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| militant | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| islamist | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| occupation | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The description of Hamas as a militant movement that controls Gaza left the opening, replaced with a description of Hamas as the de facto government.
- An older phrasing noting criticism of UNRWA’s denial, reworded when the opening was rewritten.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 342221239):
The Hamas–UNRWA Holocaust dispute erupted on 31 August 2009 following a perception in the Gaza Strip that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) planned to include a course on human rights that speaks about the Holocaust in the eighth-grade curriculum of preparatory schools it runs in the territory. Militant Islamic movement Hamas , which controls the Gaza Strip , protested, calling the Holocaust “a lie made up by the Zionists ” and demanding the removal of the offending content from the curriculum. The United Nations agency responded by denying that it teaches the subject of the Holocaust in its schools or that it plans to teach it in its new curriculum. This denial drew critici…
2025 (revision 1293371704):
2009 dispute over Holocaust education The Hamas–UNRWA Holocaust dispute erupted on 31 August 2009 following a perception in the Gaza Strip that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) planned to include a course on human rights that speaks about the Holocaust in the eighth-grade curriculum of preparatory schools it runs in the territory. The Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement Hamas , which is the de-facto government in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip , protested, calling the Holocaust “a lie made up by the Zionists ” and demanding the removal of the offending content from the curriculum. Some officials of the United Nations agency initially responded by denying that it …
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
Wikipedia text is quoted under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is not affiliated with Wikipedia.