Umariya Elementary School: what Wikipedia removed
The Umariya Elementary School is a madrassa in Jerusalem’s Old City. The 2010 opening stated that “former students at the school include Abu Nidal, the founder of a militant Fatah breakaway organization.” Today the word militant occurs nowhere in the article, and the opening no longer mentions Abu Nidal at all. A reader today does not learn that the school’s most notorious alumnus founded a militant Fatah breakaway organization.
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 |
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 the school as ‘prestigious,’ dropped in a later rewording of the opening line.
- A description of the school’s building history, reworded rather than removed.
- The fact that Abu Nidal, founder of a militant Fatah breakaway organization, was a student at the school, dropped entirely from the opening.
- A Wikimedia Commons category link, dropped with routine cleanup of the page footer.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 363186659):
The Umariya Elementary School is a prestigious madrassa in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem ‘s Old City . It is located at the start of the Via Dolorosa , and is adjacent to the Convent of the Sisters of Zion . Underneath the buildings of the school are a corner of the remains of the Antonia Fortress . In 1996, under the orders of the then prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , an exit from the Western Wall Tunnel was blasted into the grounds of the School (specifically, under the school’s entrance stairs). This action was interpreted by the Arabic populace as a land-grab, and over the subsequent few weeks, 80 people were killed as a result of riots [citation needed] against the creation of the…
2025 (revision 1288841408):
Elementary school in Jerusalem Courtyard of the school The Umariya Elementary School ( al-Omariyya , al-ʿUmariyya ) is a madrassa in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem ‘s Old City . It is located at the start of the Via Dolorosa , where it marks the First Station of the Cross , and is adjacent to the Convent of the Sisters of Zion . Underneath the buildings of the school are remains of the Antonia Fortress . In 1996, under the orders of the then prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , an exit from the Western Wall Tunnel was opened into the Via Dolorosa underneath the school’s entrance stairs. This was interpreted by some in the Arab population as a land-grab, and over the subsequent week, 80 peop…
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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