 | The following is a draft working towards a proposal for adoption as a Wikipedia Manual of Style guideline. The proposal must not be taken to represent consensus, but is still in development and under discussion, and has not yet reached the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as policy, guideline, nor yet even as a proposal. |
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For the purposes of keeping a Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, the following guidelines should be followed when editing in the Israel-Palestine topic area. It's expected that different editors will have different interpretations of these guidelines. The goal of this MOS is to provide principles that editors can cite in discussions. This will ideally allow editors to focus their comments on what actually matters.
Israeli settlements
editThe following wording should be used when introducing the legal status of Israeli settlements:
- The international community considers Israeli settlements in (the Golan Heights, the West Bank and East Jerusalem) illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
Other information about the international legal status of settlements should only be added if it is specific to the particular settlement being discussed.
Words to avoid
editMassacre
editThe term "massacre" should be avoided in article titles related to the conflict unless it is the WP:COMMONNAME as used by a significant majority of English-language sources. A common name should be widely used beyond just Arab or Israeli sources.
- The 1929 Hebron massacre and Qana massacre are described as massacres by almost all Israeli, Arab, and global sources.
Editors should avoid titling an article as a "massacre" based on their own assessment of the death toll, the purpose of the event, or methods of killing. This rationale almost never achieves consensus when brought up at requested moves, and typically results in arguments over whether the event was a legitimate use of force.
West Bank, Judea and Samaria
editThe conventions on the use of these names at West Bank naming conventions should be adhered to.
Categorization
editAvoid adding controversial categories such as war crime, mass murder, or massacre without the backing of reliable sources in the article.