The Wikimedia Foundation did not intervene in Croatian Wikipedia; stewards did, after it came to light that some of the leaders of the right-wing faction were involved in severe vote manipulation. This comment has some details:
My personal sympathies are with the embattled Israeli liberals, but I feel like WMF is better off not acting. Most readers of Hebrew Wikipedia also read English. If the right wingers turn hewiki into their own enclave, it’s not a catastrophe. Israelis will be aware the same topics are discussed differently in the two languages, and calibrate their Wiki usage accordingly.
If WMF intervenes, it will get tons of bad press. In the current climate, it should stay as far away from the culture war as possible.
That's a very reasonable take, and honestly, hard to argue with. The risk-reward calculation for WMF is brutal. At the same time, it's frustrating to watch a project drift into ideological capture and feel like there's no useful lever to pull.
That would be a very reasonable take, and hard to argue with, if it was true.
Sadly, most Israelis have worse English than what people imagine, especially when it comes to reading. Many readers of Hebrew Wikipedia are school children who use it constantly to do their homework in history, social science, Bible (studying thd old testament is obligatory in israel, from 2nd to 12th grade). When the judicial overhaul began, and articles about democracy, separation of powers, override clause etc were messed with by government supporters, very few Israelis had the time, patience and skill to compare the Hebrew articles with the English ones.
To make things worse, since the Gaza war started the entire country is talking about the anti-Israeli biases in English Wikipedia (many such biases do exist), so the public faith in it has declined drastically.
So - yes, if your observation about the Israeli readers of Wikipedia was true, it would make a great argument against WMF intervention. Unfortunately - it's not.
The Wikimedia Foundation did not intervene in Croatian Wikipedia; stewards did, after it came to light that some of the leaders of the right-wing faction were involved in severe vote manipulation. This comment has some details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2021-06-27/Disinformation_report#c-Giraffer-2021-06-27T22:04:00.000Z-Nosebagbear-2021-06-27T20:46:00.000Z
Gergő, thank you for the correction. I have struck through the incorrect wording, rewritten the sentence, and added a note about the change.
My personal sympathies are with the embattled Israeli liberals, but I feel like WMF is better off not acting. Most readers of Hebrew Wikipedia also read English. If the right wingers turn hewiki into their own enclave, it’s not a catastrophe. Israelis will be aware the same topics are discussed differently in the two languages, and calibrate their Wiki usage accordingly.
If WMF intervenes, it will get tons of bad press. In the current climate, it should stay as far away from the culture war as possible.
That's a very reasonable take, and honestly, hard to argue with. The risk-reward calculation for WMF is brutal. At the same time, it's frustrating to watch a project drift into ideological capture and feel like there's no useful lever to pull.
That would be a very reasonable take, and hard to argue with, if it was true.
Sadly, most Israelis have worse English than what people imagine, especially when it comes to reading. Many readers of Hebrew Wikipedia are school children who use it constantly to do their homework in history, social science, Bible (studying thd old testament is obligatory in israel, from 2nd to 12th grade). When the judicial overhaul began, and articles about democracy, separation of powers, override clause etc were messed with by government supporters, very few Israelis had the time, patience and skill to compare the Hebrew articles with the English ones.
To make things worse, since the Gaza war started the entire country is talking about the anti-Israeli biases in English Wikipedia (many such biases do exist), so the public faith in it has declined drastically.
So - yes, if your observation about the Israeli readers of Wikipedia was true, it would make a great argument against WMF intervention. Unfortunately - it's not.