[Wikipedia-l] WP:OFFICE-like action in the Hebrew Wikipedia

[Cary Bass]

Amir: 

I am forwarding your email to Mike Godwin for further opinion--but as far as
I'm aware, the Foundation was not contacted regarding this matter.  I have
received no correspondence about it, and I'm not certain that a national
chapter should be superseding a community decision.
 
--

Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator
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Amir E. Aharoni wrote:
> 
> (Short intro: I am User:Amire80, editor in Hebrew, Russian 
> and English Wikipedias, and sysop in the English one.)
> 
> The whole article about Amnon Yitzhak, a well-known and 
> controversial Jewish preacher, was deleted from the Hebrew Wikipedia.
> 
> It happened after Wikimedia Israel received a letter from an 
> attorney representing Yitzhak, which requested to remove 
> allegedly defamatory material from the article.
> 
> The article was deleted and recreated without older versions. 
> For the short time that these versions were available, it was 
> possible to see that the article was not any more defamatory 
> against Amnon Yitzhak than an average newspaper or television 
> item about him. The editors who worked on it were not vandals 
> and the material was reasonably sourced. Now it's impossible 
> to see that, too (unless one is a sysop there).
> 
> Nevertheless, the bureaucrats of the Hebrew Wikipedia chose 
> to salt the article with an explanation similar to WP:OFFICE.
> 
> The problem is that it is doesn't seem to be a case for WP:OFFICE.
> Wikimedia Israel is not the main Wikimedia Office, but only a 
> small local association, which is just beginning its life. In 
> any case, as far as my understanding of jurisdictions goes, 
> Wikimedia Israel cannot be held responsible for the content 
> of the article and neither the article's editors.
> 
> I am sincerely sorry to be a "schtinker". That's a Yiddish 
> word for "informer". The bureaucrats of the Hebrew Wikipedia 
> are excellent contributors, thanks to whom the Hebrew 
> Wikipedia is one of the very best projects of the WMF. But i 
> am quite sure that they made a mistake in this case. 
> Wikipedia must not censor out sourced material after one 
> feeble legal threat so easily.
> 
> Many respected editors of the Hebrew Wikipedia voiced their 
> opposition to this deletion, but the sysops do not agree to 
> restore the deleted versions, saying that they won't do it 
> without proper legal advice.
> This is understandable; so - can someone from the Foundation 
> Office, who has experience with BLP legal situations help the 
> Hebrew Wikipedia sysops to solve this problem?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> --
> Amir Elisha Aharoni
> 
> English -  http://aharoni.wordpress.com
> Hebrew  - http://haharoni.wordpress.com
> 
> "We're living in pieces,
>  I want to live in peace." - T. Moore
> 
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