Dear Wikimedians of the Levant,

In light of the ongoing escalation of the Israel-Palestine crisis, we wanted to reach out to you to understand how best we can support you during these challenging times. This is truly an unprecedented period where we are learning how to deal with several new challenges affecting our movement globally. As we do this, we recognize the current risks facing you and the community in the area. We understand that the situation has brought unique and overwhelming challenges. While we may not be able to comprehend fully the difficulties you face daily, we want to be sure you know that we are here to offer support to the best of our ability. 

Our team (Human Rights team) leads an active cross-organization Working Group with expertise from teams in Legal, Disinformation, Global Advocacy, Technology, Communications, and others. The group’s focus is on the safety of staff and volunteers, especially those most directly impacted by crisis events. We continue to offer support to those who may need it by maintaining an open channel (monitored by staff 24/7) for volunteers to raise human rights concerns or request support. We also monitor for disinformation campaigns - concerted efforts by groups to bias content. Reports of suspected group disinformation campaigns can be sent to ca@wikimedia.org. We are always looking for other ways we can support you, including preparing resources that you might find useful:

Resources:

• A comprehensive guide with resources on how community members can stay connected during internet outages. 

• Wikimedia Foundation updates on the crisis in Gaza and Israel

• Human Rights Team’s digital security resources, and for a quick guide, see this list of digital safety considerations for Wikimedians.

As these resources may not offer all the solutions to the challenges you are facing, we are inviting you to share with us anything more we can do to support you. You can see the kind of support that we and the Trust & Safety team can offer at our MetaWiki pages. To contact us, please use the emails below:

• Human Rights: talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org

• In case of urgent human rights risks and threats: emergency@wikimedia.org

• Trust and Safety: ca@wikimedia.org

We are also happy to coordinate a call for you with appropriate staff, such as Stephen LaPorte, our General Counsel, if this would be helpful to you to voice your needs.

Finally, your feedback is crucial to us, so please share if there's a more suitable method of communication that would work better for you. We are learning and are committed to understanding ways that we can sensitively address these issues. Your guidance is greatly appreciated. We recognize your important work in our movement in the Levant region, and we hope to be the partners you need in this challenging time.

Best regards,

Human Rights Team

Wikimedia Foundation