Wikipedia:Contentious topics/Arab–Israeli conflict

This page documents and supplements decisions of the Arbitration Committee concerning a contentious topic.

WP:CT/A-I

The Arbitration Committee has enacted remedies that apply to all editors who make edits related to the Arab–Israeli conflict (the "contentious topic"). The contentious topics procedure applies to all pages and edits related to this contentious topic.

Additionally, the following arbitration remedies apply:

Extended confirmed restriction – only extended-confirmed editors may make edits related to the topic area, with certain exceptions as provided below.
1RR – subject to the normal exceptions, editors may not make more than one revert (as defined in WP:3RR) per page in the conflict area per 24 hours.
Editors limited to 1,000 words per formal discussion – all participants in formal discussions (RfCs, RMs, etc) within the area of conflict are urged to keep their comments concise, and are limited to 1,000 words per discussion. This restriction expires on 15 November 2026.

Arbitration Committee decisions

Editors reminded

2) Editors are reminded that when editing in subject areas of bitter and long-standing real-world conflict, it is all the more important to comply with Wikipedia policies such as assuming good faith of all editors including those on the other side of the real-world dispute, writing with a neutral point of view, remaining civil and avoiding personal attacks, utilizing reliable sources for contentious or disputed assertions, and making use of dispute resolution where necessary.

Wikipedia cannot resolve the dispute between the Israeli and Palestinian people or any other real-world conflict. What Wikipedia can do is aspire to provide neutral, encyclopedic coverage about the areas of dispute and the peoples involved in it, which may lead to a broader understanding of the issues and the positions of all real-life conflict parties. The contributions of all good-faith editors on these articles who contribute with this goal in mind are appreciated.

Passed 5 to 1 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Editors counselled

3) Editors who find it difficult to edit a particular article or topic from a neutral point of view and adhere to other Wikipedia policies are counselled that they may sometimes need or wish to step away temporarily from that article or subject area. Sometimes, editors in this position may wish to devote some of their knowledge, interest, and effort to creating or editing other articles that may relate to the same broad subject-matter as the dispute, but are less immediately contentious. For example, an editor whose ethnicity, cultural heritage, or personal interests relate to Side X and who finds that they become caught up in edit-warring on an article about a recent war between Side X and Side Y, may wish to disengage from that article for a time and instead focus on a different aspect of the history, civilization, and cultural heritage of Side X.

Passed 5 to 1 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Definition of the "area of conflict"

4) For the purposes of editing restrictions in the ARBPIA topic area, the "area of conflict" shall be defined as encompassing

the entire set of articles whose topic relates to the Arab-Israeli conflict, broadly interpreted ("primary articles"), and
edits relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict, to pages and discussions in all namespaces with the exception of userspace ("related content")

Passed 6 to 0 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

ARBPIA General Sanctions

5) The following set of sanctions will be considered the "ARBPIA General Sanctions".

Contentious topic designation: The area of conflict is designated as a contentious topic.
Extended confirmed restriction: The extended confirmed restriction is imposed on the area of conflict.
One Revert Restriction (1RR): Each editor is limited to one revert per page per 24 hours on any edits made to content within the area of conflict. Reverts made to enforce the extended confirmed restriction are exempt from the provisions of this motion. Also, the normal exemptions apply. Editors who violate this restriction may be blocked by any uninvolved administrator.

Passed 6 to 0 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Last amended at 15:46, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Standing sanctions upon primary articles

6) All primary articles will be subject to the ARBPIA General Sanctions. {{ArbCom Arab-Israeli enforcement}} should be added to the talk page of affected pages, and {{ArbCom Arab-Israeli editnotice}} should be added as an editnotice to affected pages. The presence of the templates is required before the General Sanctions can be enforced on primary articles. The templates may be added to primary articles by any user, but may only be removed by an uninvolved administrator. Users who lack the appropriate permissions to create an editnotice should place the talk page template as normal, then make an edit request for someone with permissions to create the edit notice.

Passed 6 to 0 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

General sanctions upon related content

7) All edits made to related content (i.e. pages not otherwise related to the area of conflict) will be subject to ARBPIA General Sanctions.

When disruptive edits are being made to such content, any editor may invoke ARBPIA General Sanctions for that content. They must place {{ArbCom Arab-Israeli enforcement}} on the talk page and {{ArbCom Arab-Israeli editnotice}} in the editnotice to do so. If there is confusion about which content is considered related, the content in question may be marked in the wiki source with an invisible comment. The presence of the templates is required before the General Sanctions can be enforced on related content. Once added by any editor, any marking, template, or editnotice may be removed only by an uninvolved administrator. Users who lack the appropriate permissions to create an editnotice should place the talk page template as normal, then make an edit request for someone with permissions to create the edit notice.

Editors should apply the ARBPIA General Sanctions templates to related content only when disruption creates a need for additional administrative tools. Administrators should only utilize the ARBPIA General Sanctions to reduce disruption caused by edits related to the conflict area. Problematic edits made to unrelated content on the same page should be handled by normal administrative means.

Passed 6 to 0 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Disputes about scope of conflict area

8) In the case of disputes regarding whether or not an article is a primary article, or whether a portion of content is related to ARBPIA, editors should use normal dispute resolution methods to come to a consensus.

Passed 6 to 0 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Available sanctions

9) Uninvolved administrators are encouraged to monitor the articles covered by discretionary sanctions in the original Palestine-Israel case to ensure compliance. To assist in this, administrators are reminded that:

Accounts with a clear shared agenda may be blocked if they violate the sockpuppetry policy or any other applicable policy;
Accounts whose primary purpose is disruption, violating the policy on biographies of living persons, or making personal attacks may be blocked indefinitely;
There are special provisions in place to deal with editors who violate the BLP policy;
Administrators may act on clear BLP violations with page protections, blocks, or warnings even if they have edited the article themselves or are otherwise involved;
The contentious topics procedure permits full and semi-page protections, including use of pending changes where warranted, and – once an editor has become aware of the contentious topic designation – any other appropriate remedy may be issued without further warning.

Passed 6 to 0 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Last amended at 21:36, 14 December 2022 (UTC)

Condensing of remedies

1) For the sake of easy referencing, the following existing remedies are vacated (with the intention of replacing them elsewhere in this decision):

Extended content

ARBPIA:

Editors reminded
Editors counseled
Standard discretionary sanctions (for "All Arab-Israeli conflict-related pages")

ARBPIA2:

ARBPIA3:

General Prohibition (of users not "extended confirmed")
Sanctions available

Existing enforcement decisions relying upon these remedies are not vacated and will be appealable as if this remedy had not carried.

Passed 6 to 0 at 05:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Appeals only to ArbCom

When imposing a contentious topic restriction under the Arab-Israeli conflict contentious topic, an uninvolved administrator may require that appeals be heard only by the Arbitration Committee. In such cases, the committee will hear appeals at ARCA according to the community review standard. A rough consensus of arbitrators will be required to overturn or amend the sanction.

Passed 9 to 0 by motion at 04:17, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Word limits (discretionary)

Uninvolved administrators may impose word limits on all participants in a discussion, or on individual editors across all discussions, within the area of conflict. These word limits are designated as part of the standard set of restrictions within the Arab-Israeli conflict contentious topic. These restrictions must be logged and may be appealed in the same way as all contentious topic restrictions.

Passed 10 to 0 by motion at 04:17, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Word limits (1,000 words)

All participants in formal discussions (RfCs, RMs, etc) within the area of conflict are urged to keep their comments concise, and are limited to 1,000 words per discussion. This motion will sunset two years from the date of its passage.

Passed 6 to 3 by motion at 04:17, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Guidance for administrators

Standard set of restrictions

Any uninvolved administrator may impose the standard set of restrictions in this topic area for up to one year. Additionally, they may require that appeals be heard only by the Arbitration Committee. In such cases, the committee will hear appeals at ARCA according to the community review standard. A rough consensus of arbitrators will be required to overturn or amend the sanction.

Individual restrictions

sitewide and partial blocks,
topic bans and page bans (from the entire contentious topic, a subtopic, or specified pages within the topic),
interaction bans,
revert restrictions,
word limits per discussion