Israeli apartheid: what Wikipedia removed
“Israeli apartheid” is a contested political characterization of Israeli policy in the occupied territories. In 2010 the opening noted Israeli officials describe the West Bank barrier as “a security fence, limiting the ability of Palestinian terrorist organizations to enter Israel,” and cited Gerald Steinberg calling the apartheid label itself “the embodiment of the new antisemitism.” Today’s opening states in Wikipedia’s own voice that “Israeli apartheid is a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination,” with no such counter-framing; terror survives 4 times elsewhere in the article. A reader today learns Wikipedia’s own characterization of Israeli policy as apartheid, and not that Israel names Palestinian terrorist organizations as the barrier’s rationale or that critics have called the apartheid label itself a form of antisemitism.
The word “terror” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 4. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| terror | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| antisemitism | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| apartheid | 35 | 17 | 23 | 34 | 46 |
| occupation | 5 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 10 |
| colonial | 4 | 3 | 3 | 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”- A quote describing the barrier as called an ‘apartheid wall’ by critics of Israeli policy, dropped from the article.
- A comparison to aspects of the South African apartheid regime, dropped from the article.
- A quote from Yossi Sarid comparing exemption from military service to apartheid, dropped from the article.
- A quote questioning whether this constitutes a ‘new apartheid system,’ dropped from the article.
- A quote from Adi Schwartz describing the ‘Apartheid Propaganda’ around the term, dropped from the article.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 370810582):
The Israeli West Bank barrier , a structure that has been called an “apartheid wall” by critics of Israeli policy. Israeli officials describe the partition, constructed in 2002, as a security fence, limiting the ability of Palestinian terrorist organizations to enter Israel . Template:Discrimination sidebar Ethnic group The State of Israel ‘s treatment of the Palestinians has been compared by critics of Israeli policy to South Africa ‘s treatment of non-whites during its apartheid era . During the apartheid era, South African officials and pro-government newspapers frequently compared the two states and said that Israel also practiced apartheid. Israel has also been accused by some of commit…
2025 (revision 1298247574):
Israeli system of racial segregation and discrimination A Palestinian child sitting on a roadblock at Al-Shuhada Street within the Old City of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank . Palestinians have nicknamed the street “Apartheid Street” because it is closed to Palestinian traffic and open only to Israeli settlers and tourists. Template:Discrimination sidebar Israeli apartheid is a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and to a lesser extent in Israel proper. This system is characterized by near-total physical separation between the Palestinian and the Israeli settler population of the West Bank , as well as the judic…
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
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