Talk:Nasser Mashni

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Concerns about article

This article is a Biography of a living person, and a controversial one at that. This means it must be held to especially high standards of verifiability and neutrality and editors should be especially careful about any edits they make to this article. I've been cleaning this article up where I can because I have concerns that these two principles are not being met, as well as about the general quality of this article, but I have particular concerns about two sections in this article: "Accusations of incitement of hatred" and "Criminal record" and I want some consensus before something is done.

My concerns are not about the truth of these claims, but the balance and quality of the citations. Three sources are cited in these sections from The Australian, The Australian Jewish News, and the Herald Sun respectively. While these are generally considered to be reliable sources by the Wikipedia community, the claims in this section are highly contentious and pertain to a living person's character and conduct. It can also be argued that the articles have a clear agenda in discrediting the subject of this article, and are all from only one side of the political spectrum. Two of these articles are hidden behind a hard paywall, making it harder for other editors or readers to verify the claims. This on its own is fine, I've cited many paywalled articles and books myself, but never for controversial and potentially libellous claims on a BLP.

Proposal

I propose that the contentious material in these two sections be temporarily removed until a more balanced range of sources can be provided to ensure neutrality. This is not a hard delete proposal, and the text and citations can be moved elsewhere for now. Freely accessible versions of cited articles should be found, as well as balanced coverage from other reliable sources. The claims should only be restored when they can be supported by balanced range of high-quality, verifiable sources. Viatori (talk) 07:29, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Hoo boy. I'm just going to run through my thoughts on these claims one-by-one, because there's a lot here.

• In October 2023 Mashni was accused of inciting hatred due to his views and breaching the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 due to Mashi leading the chant "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free" as well as protest organisers and participants besides Mashni chanting “Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud” and calling for Intifada.

The source should very clearly say who is accusing him, in this case it's Menachem Vorchheimer, an accountant and "Jewish human rights campaigner" per the Oz. This seemed to amount to precisely (forgive the language) fuck all actual legal action against Mashni, so I think it should be removed from the article. A letter being sent to Mashni by an accountant studying for a JD is really not worth inclusion.

• Besides being the president of APAN Mashni is the founder of another charity, Olive Kids that sends aide to Palestinian children in Gaza and also may be linked to the PFLP.

First of all, I don't know why this is under "Accusations of incitement of hatred". Australian Jewish News says that Olive Kids "sends funds to a front in Gaza for a terror group", citing Sky News. The Australian states that Olive Kids is "sending money to a Gaza-based health organisation ­accused of being affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group, known as the PFLP". Looking at uncited sources, Sky News (1) states that Olive Kids sent money to the Union of Health Work Committees, which is supposedly PFLP-affiliated, but also that this money went to uh, urgent medical supplies and fuel for generators. The article from The Australian cited in the article also links to another article (2) in the Oz, which more or less repeats the same claim. I will note that this article includes a rebuttal of sorts from Olive Kids chairman Amin Abbas, which states that Olive Kids is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. The charity operates, fundraises and distributes its revenue in full compliance with all ACNC conduct standards, and is financially audited annually, demonstrating transparency in both its fundraising and expenditure processes. In any case, why is this worth including in the man's biography? Is he individually accused of any wrongdoing?

• Mashni has also considered certain members of terror linked groups to be heroes including individuals who have plotted to carry out suicide combings in Israel. He has also praised members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. However Mashni has also emphasised during a rally in May 2021 that his issue is with Zionism and not Judaism.

The source for this is one article in the Herald Sun, where he praises some Israeli prison escapees, five of whom were Islamic Jihad members, and the sixth an Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade member. I'm not terribly convinced this warrants mentioning given that the praise was in one tweet, but sure, you could say "Mashni described six Israeli prison escapees, five of whom were members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and one of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, as heroes". I am not convinced this is necessary, though. The Zionism stuff seems like an unnecessary aside borne of summarising the Herald Sun article.

• Mashni has also praised convicted plane hijacker Leila Khaled.

Source is an opinion article by Andrew Bolt. Here's a non-opinion source (3, which I suspect whoever added this may have intended to cite]) that verifies the same thing, he thinks of her as a hero, sure. It would be lovely to have a source that examines why as opposed to just "Palestinian man likes terrorists", but sure, this is not incorrect.

Now that we're done with that, we can get to the section entitled "Criminal record", which deals with a sordid conviction from when he was 22 to do with attacking a boy who stole from his milk bar. I think this is wholly irrelevant and ought to be excluded, it is a serious BLP violation that has nothing to do with his notability, it appears to me like an obvious case where we should assume in favour of privacy.

Anyway, that was a lot of text to say I more or less agree with what Viatori proposes, with a few exceptions. I think the only things from these sections that ought to remain is the bit about praising prisoners and Leila Khaled, and even those I am skeptical on, because a BLP is not a collection of assorted views the subject holds. The main problem with these sources is that they are quite ideologically slanted, which is not necessarily a problem (for example, at Joanna Howe, a BLP I wrote, most sources are probably not sympathetic to the article's subject), but here they combine to create the sense of, "the subject of this BLP is a racist who supports terrorists and a criminal". I will note I did find this one Sydney Morning Herald source (4)) amidst my readings, but it is already cited in the article four times, so I suspect there's not much more to be wrung from it.

However, I don't agree with Viatori's criticisms in relation to the paywalls. Many good and reliable sources of journalism are paywalled, and limiting sources because they can't be accessed by every reader is not the right way to go. Wikipedia's relevant policy here is verifiability, and just because an article is difficult to verify, does not mean it can't be verified. We should be wary of FUTON bias, and in this case, the more relevant factor is that the sources are ideologically slanted and make extreme claims, not that they aren't freely accessible.

I would support removing both of these sections from the article to avoid a BLP violation, and discussing what amongst the not-immediately-policy violating should remain. --LivelyRatification (talk) 09:08, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for your very detailed and thorough analysis! With regards to my criticism on paywalls, I think you have changed my mind and I would be inclined to agree with your argument. I think the section on Leila Khaled can be left in also, but with great care taken to the wording of course. Once the issues with the article are resolved, I will probably split "Views and activism" into two separate sections. Viatori (talk) 09:22, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Feel free to. I would say that I think this article could do with a broader look at to be more biography-like -- as it is right now, it reads more as a series of news snippets than anything else. I'm not terribly surprised about that given the article's subject (probably mainly mentioned in news articles to do with pro-Palestinian activism/protests), but it is lacking on basic biographical information and a broad outlook on the subject. Not uncommon (or indeed actively problematic), but worth improving if you have the time or desire to! LivelyRatification (talk) 09:59, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

I will certainly address this. I think this article has the potential to become a Good article in the distant future, so I want to actively work on improving it. Viatori (talk) 10:05, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

I don't have time for more now, but just commenting that I agree broadly with what LivelyRatification has said above, this is far from adhering to WP:BLP and needs a LOT of trimming. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 12:09, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Criminal conviction

@~2026-38071-65: Please remove the section on Mashni's criminal conviction from this article. This occurred while he was a private figure and I believe including it here is a violation on Wikipedia's policy on the biographies of living people, namely the presumption in favour of privacy. Just because something has been reported in a reliable source does not mean it merits inclusion on Wikipedia, and in this instance you have repeatedly inserted the sordid details of a criminal conviction from many years ago when Mashni was a private individual. Your edits are contentious and risk violating Wikipedia's policies. --LivelyRatification (talk) 11:23, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

Since the Wikipedia entry is headed Nassar Mashni and makes reference to his early life, any aspect of it that has been in the public domain and is if public interest is biographically relevant.

A criminal past is a matter of public interest. It is part of a person's biography. For example, Nelson Mandela's criminal past is a matter of public interest and appears under Mandela's Wikipedia entry.

Additionally, Mashni's criminal past -which he himself acknowledged - was raised during an ABC TV Q&A panel discussion program, bringing the matter into the public domain.

Also, the fact that a long-established, major Australia news outlet reported that Mashni had criminal convictions is itself sufficient reason to include the report under Mashni's Wikipedia entry.

Finally, under Australia's legal system all criminal trials are open to the public and can be openly reported unless the Court institutes suppression orders. This is not the case here. ~2026-38071-65 (talk) 02:00, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

Nelson Mandela is not living, and as such, WP:BLP does not apply to him, as it does with Mashni. Viatori (talk) 09:15, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

Mashni's reported criminal history

I have attempted to include on Nasser Mashni's Wikipedia page a reference to a report from media outlet the Herald Sun, affirmed by media outlet The Australian, of Mashni's criminal history. However, "Viatori" keeps removing it, wrongly citing 'privacy' as a ground. Privacy is not a ground recognised by Wikipedia for excluding from a notable person's biography a report of the person's criminal history, regardless whether they are dead or alive. Wikipedia includes a criminal history under the biography entry of notable living Australians including sportspersons Ben Cousins, Wayne Carey, Nicky Winmar and Nathan Baggaley, and political figures Brian Burke, Eddie Obeid, Gareth Ward, Craig Thomson and Troy Bell. The two media outlets I cited are major, long-established corporate news agencies, accepted by Wikipedia. Their reports on Mashni state that Mashni pleaded guilty to the reported convictions. For these reasons, I argue that NO justifiable case has been made that it is within Wikipedia's policies to exclude from Mashni's biography page the reports of his criminal convictions.

~2026-38071-65 (talk) 10:36, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

You may link my name by using double block brackets like so: [[Viatori]] in future. Viatori (talk) 12:54, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

As no discussion or counter-arguments have been put forward since I raised this issue on 9 July, I intend to re-insert on the Wikipedia page my previous references to Mashni's criminal history. If Viatori once again removes it, I will lodge a complaint through the official Wikipedia process. ~2026-40316-60 (talk) 00:10, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

I would object to this as I have before. The convictions in question are prior to when Mashni became a notable figure, and so far as I can tell, only the Herald Sun has directly reported on it, with the matter also being raised on the ABC's Q&A program. It is factual, true, and verifiable but my view with regards to this is that it is not significantly relevant, and inclusion of it risks violating Wikipedia's BLP policy. If there is significant consensus in favour of its inclusion that would be one thing, but as far as I can tell, two editors have opposed inserting it and one has supported it. LivelyRatification (talk) 06:01, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

I haven't been following this and don't know what his criminal history is supposed to be, but will just drop in here to say that I think that this article may be subject to {{Contentious topics/talk notice|a-i}} arbitration rules, as it is relevant to the Arab–Israeli conflict, and therefore should be considered for semi-page-protection (i.e. limited to experienced editors). Laterthanyouthink (talk) 06:11, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

I am in agreement with this position. Viatori (talk) 11:53, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

That's what Wikipedia:Requests for page protection is for. You can use WP:Twinkle to make these requests easily. I've gone ahead and protected this page. @~2026-40316-60: Because of the existing contentious topic restrictions, as a temporary account, you may not use this page for anything except uncontroversial edit requests. -- Reconrabbit (talk) 14:53, 13 August 2026 (UTC)

A person's criminal history is an inextricable part of their 'Early life', their biography.

This article is headed 'Nasser Mashni', not anything else.It has a section headed 'Early life'.

The 'Early life' section has references to Mashni's birth, his occupation and his family members.

There is nothing in Wikipedia's policies to suggest that a person's criminal history is 'not relevant' to their early life. Quite the contrary.

I want this matter immediately escalated. ~2026-40316-60 (talk) 23:10, 19 July 2026 (UTC)