When my sons were starting a school or high-school assignment and were completely stuck — and, to be honest, a bit lazy — I always encouraged them to begin by reading about the subject on Wikipedia and then come back to me. It couldn’t do any harm. At the very least, they would get the chronology straight — time, place, names — and perhaps even a vague sense of what the topic was about. That is how I have always used Wikipedia myself. Wikipedia does not lie about who was Secretary-General of the CPSU in 1965, or about when John F. Kennedy was shot.
But now the hatred of Israel — and of the very legitimacy of a Jewish homeland — has also found its way into Wikipedia, particularly the English-language version.
If you type “Zionism” into the search field, you are offered topics such as “Zionism as settler colonialism,” “Zionism in the age of dictators” (written by a communist), “Zionism from the standpoints of its victims,” and “Racism in Israel.”
If you click on the main article, you are met with the following definition:
“Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th-century Europe. Its aim is to establish and support a Jewish homeland through the colonisation of Palestine, which corresponds to the Land of Israel in Judaism and is central to Jewish history. Zionists sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible.”
(emphasis added)
“The Gang of 40”
It is the journalist Ashley Rindsberg who, in Wiki Wars in Tablet Magazine and in Pirate Wires, has systematically and meticulously documented how a group of approximately 40 activists have bombarded Wikipedia’s coverage of Israel, Hamas, the 7 October pogrom, and everything related to it. Through sheer volume and persistence, they have forced their way into editorial control and overwhelmed opposing contributors.
Rindsberg refers to them as “the Gang of 40”. The group has succeeded in submitting around 850,000 edits, all related to Israel. The quotation above from the “Zionism” article became a major point of contention, but once again the Gang of 40 prevailed: Wikipedia chose to “freeze” the controversial wording until 21 February 2026.
Who are the Gang of 40?
According to Rindsberg, the activists possess deep knowledge of Wikipedia’s highly complex rules. They deliberately operate in small groups — often three at a time — to avoid attracting attention. Over several consecutive days, they target anyone who opposes a change, engaging in what Rindsberg calls “swarm attacks”: backing one another up while appearing independent, until their opponents are exhausted and give up.
Complete control
“Their influence is staggering,” Rindsberg writes. “With two million edits across more than 10,000 articles — most of them related to the Israel-Palestine conflict — in dozens of cases the group’s edits account for up to 90 per cent of an article’s content, giving them complete control over the subject.”
The activists operate from several countries and hide behind cryptic usernames such as sean.hoyland, CarmenEsparzaAmoux, Makeandross, Nishidani, Onceinawhile, and Nableezy.
One of the most active is Iskandar 323. He shows a particular enthusiasm for editing articles about Israel and Jews, where he systematically removes small but crucial details defining Jewish identity and the Jewish people’s historical connection to Israel and Jerusalem. He also frequently shields Iran from criticism. The changes are subtle — but effective.
The Nazi mufti edited out
Working together with users Zero0000 and Nishidani, Iskandar 323 has successfully removed references to Hamas’ 1988 charter, which explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel. He has also managed to delete references to the fact that the Mufti of Jerusalem resided in Berlin during the Second World War and was closely allied with Hitler and the Nazis. Other activists succeeded in removing a notorious photograph of the mufti visiting a Nazi concentration camp.
These changes remain in force in Wikipedia’s articles today.
Foreign Islamist networks?
A group calling itself Tech for Palestine launched a pro-Palestinian campaign immediately after 7 October, mobilising its 8,000 members with the explicit aim of infiltrating Wikipedia and, among other objectives, pressuring the British government to change its existing policy and demand a two-state solution. When the group was exposed, it formally dissolved — but until then it functioned as an adviser and coordinator for the Wikipedia activists’ anti-Israel campaign.
Engaging seriously with Wikipedia is extremely time-consuming. For many well-meaning contributors, participation is a personal calling: a commitment to building a shared global repository of knowledge. That is why it raises questions that figures like Iskandar 323 have been able to produce such an extraordinary number of edits in such a short time — 12,000 edits to Israel-Palestine articles between January 2022 and September 2024.
Does Iskandar 323 even exist? Or is the username a cover for a foreign network of trolls infecting Wikipedia with subtle Islamist anti-Israeli and antisemitic propaganda?
And if left-wing activists and jihadists succeed in capturing Wikipedia, it is not just Wikipedia that has a problem. Google uncritically relies on Wikipedia in its search results. So does ChatGPT.
Several Republican lawmakers in Congress have now taken action. The House Committee on Cybersecurity is demanding that Wikipedia produce documents and other information about its “volunteer” contributors in order to uncover the methods used by foreign individuals to “systematically promote antisemitic and anti-Israeli influence” over Wikipedia’s content.
