Jamal Al-Gashey: what Wikipedia removed
Jamal Al-Gashey is a surviving member of the Black September cell that murdered eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. As of October 6, 2023 the opening called him a “Palestinian terrorist… one of eight terrorists who carried out the massacre,” and described “five of the Black September terrorists” killed in the rescue attempt. Today the opening calls him a “Palestinian militant,” “one of eight militants,” and “five of the Black September militants”; terrorist appears 0 times in the opening today and survives once in the body. A reader today learns he was a “militant” who took part in a massacre, and not that Wikipedia itself called him and his Black September cell terrorists as recently as October 2023.
The word “terror” appeared 4 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 6 October 2023. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 1. 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 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| militant | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| massacre | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| hostage | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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 him as a ‘Palestinian terrorist’ is gone, replaced with ‘Palestinian militant.‘
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 363725246):
Jamal Al-Gashey Jamal Al-Gashey ( Template:Lang-ar ) (born 1953?) was a member of the Black September offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization and is believed to be the last surviving hostage-taker from the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics . He is visible several times in videos of the event, identifiable by his blue and white striped jacket. During the abortive rescue attempt by Bavarian border guards and Munich police which resulted in the deaths of nine hostages and five of the hostage takers, Al-Gashey was shot in the wrist attempting to aid a fellow hostage taker.
2025 (revision 1284973345):
Palestinian militant (born 1953) Jamal Al-Gashey ( Arabic : جمال الجاشي ; born 1953 ) is a Palestinian militant who was a member of the Black September offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization and one of eight militants who carried out the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. He is visible several times in television news footage of the event, identifiable by his blue- and white-striped jacket. During the failed rescue attempt by the Munich police, which resulted in the deaths of nine Israeli hostages and five of the Black September militants, Al-Gashey was shot in the wrist attempting to aid a fellow Black September member. ^ …
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.