Yusuf Nazzal: what Wikipedia removed
Yusuf Nazzal was second-in-command of the Black September squad that seized the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Munich Games, killing two athletes in the initial takeover. Through 2020 the opening called the group he served the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Today the opening calls him a Palestinian militant leader and the group only the Palestinian Black September Organisation, the word terrorist itself absent from the opening though it survives three times elsewhere in the article. A reader arriving now learns he led a militant group and not that the opening once named it a terrorist group.
The word “terror” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2020. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 3. 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 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| terror | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| militant | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| massacre | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| hostage | 1 | 2 | 2 |
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 rewording of the sentence describing the televised hostage crisis, no fact lost.
- A rewording of the cited book’s subtitle describing the massacre and the Israeli response, no fact lost.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2020 (revision 963004292):
Yusuf Nazzal (1937 – 6 September 1972) (code-name ’ Tony’ ) was the second in command of eight members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September that invaded 31 Connollystraße in the Munich Olympic Village on 5 September 1972, and taking nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage after two members, weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg , were killed in the initial takeover. Television images broadcast to the billions of people watching around the world show Nazzal frequently throughout the crisis, seemingly always smoking, wearing sunglasses, open neck red shirt and a cowboy hat, which led him to be identified as the ‘Cowboy’. According to author Serge …
2025 (revision 1259944503):
Palestinian militant leader (1937–1972) Yusuf Nazzal (1937 – 6 September 1972) (code name “Tony”) was the second-in-command of eight members of the Palestinian Black September Organisation that invaded 31 Connollystraße in the Munich Olympic Village on 5 September 1972, and took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage after two members, weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg , were killed in the initial takeover. Television images broadcast during the hostage crisis show Nazzal frequently, seemingly always smoking, wearing sunglasses, an open-neck red shirt, and a cowboy hat, which led him to be identified as the ‘Cowboy’. According to author Serge Groussard ,…
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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