Earlier this month, the Wikimedia Foundation that owns Wikipedia rejected candidates in community elections for its Board of Trustees, sparking a community revolt. One rejected candidate was Iraqi national Ravan Jaafar Al-Taie, who made numerous anti-Israeli posts. After community-elected board member Victoria Doronina publicly linked the posts to the rejection, Al-Taie filed a conduct complaint against Doronina, who later apologized and announced she was suspending most board activities until the end of the year.

Further controversy erupted over a dispute between the Foundation CEO and a member of the community at a Wikipedia conference discussion regarding the election controversy, which led to the CEO apologizing for her conduct, noting her emotional state was affected by a gunman who rushed the stage at the conference the previous day.

The Wikimedia Foundation is governed by a board where roughly half of its members are elected from within the community of contributors to Wikipedia and its affiliated sites. Just prior to the commencement of the voting period for this year’s elections, Board Chair Nataliia Tymkiv announced two candidates out of six were rejected as part of its vetting process: Lane Rasberry and Al-Taie. This was in addition to candidates who were already rejected during a short-listing process. Outcry from the community immediately followed with open letters and a petition for board reform altogether signed by hundreds of contributors, many calling for an election boycott if rejected candidates were not reinstated.

Rasberry was purportedly rejected mainly over concerns regarding his involvement with the Signpost community newsletter, while Al-Taie’s candidacy was allegedly rejected over social media comments she made regarding the war in Gaza that had been covered in the Jerusalem Post and other news outlets. While Rasberry openly discussed his rejection in an announcement at the discussion page for the Signpost, Al-Taie initi