Muhammad Zaidan: what Wikipedia removed
Muhammad Zaidan, also known as Abu Abbas, founded and led the Palestine Liberation Front. Through 2005 the opening called him “a Palestinian terrorist” and said the killing of an unarmed, elderly man and the hijacking of a civilian ship “could also be considered a war crime.” Today neither word appears anywhere in the article; the opening now introduces him only as “Founder and leader of the Palestine Liberation Front.” A reader today does not learn that Wikipedia’s own 2005 opening called Zaidan a terrorist or described the killing during the hijacking as a possible war crime.
The word “occupation” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. 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 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| occupation | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| terror | 4 | 0 | 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 opening once called him outright a Palestinian terrorist before naming his role in the Palestine Liberation Front; today it opens only with the organizational title.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16092831):
Muhammad Zaidan (also known as Abu Abbas and Muhammad Abbas ) ( December 10 , 1948 – March 8 , 2004 ) was a Palestinian terrorist . The founder and leader of a paramilitary terrorist group the Palestine Liberation Front , his notoriety in the West is mostly due to the murder of Leon Klinghoffer , an elderly, wheelchair-bound Jewish - American , who was shot dead and thrown overboard, during the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship the Achille Lauro , which Zaidan planned and instigated. Zaidan joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command under Ahmed Jibril in 1968 . In 1977 , major disagreements arose between the PFLP-GC, the PLO , and other Palestinian facti…
2025 (revision 1260026268):
Founder and leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (1948–2004) Muhammad Zaidan aka Muhammad Abbas (10 December 1948 – 8 March 2004), sometimes known as Abu Abbas ( Arabic : أبو عباس Abū ʿAbbās; / ˈ ɑː b uː ə ˈ b ɑː s / pronunciation AH -boo ə- BAHSS ), was (with Tal’at Ya’qoub) a founder of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) Organization. ^ “Oct 7, 1985: Palestinian Terrorists Hijack an Italian Cruise Ship” . The Maritime Executive . 5 October 2012. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012 . Retrieved 22 October 2012 .
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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