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Hafrada

In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “english”. Today it says “policy of the government of israel to separate the israeli population from the palestinian population in the oc”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2025

Yitzhak Rabin , Israeli Prime Minister from 1992-1995, was the first to advocate for the construction of a physical barrier between Israelis and Palestinians. Following the 1995 Beit Lid suicide bombing that killed 22 Israelis, Rabin stated that separation is necessary to protect the majority of Israeli Jews from Palestinian terrorism . Ehud Barak , Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001, stated that "good fences make good neighbors." Since its first public introductions, the concept-turned-policy or paradigm has dominated Israeli political and cultural discourse and debate. The separation policy was maintained by successive Israeli governments, which constructed the Israel-Gaza barrier and the Israeli West Bank barrier ( Geder Ha'hafrada, Hebrew for "separation fence"). In 2005, Israel carried out the disengagement from Gaza , which included the evacuation of Israeli settlements and the IDF from the Gaza Strip. The West Bank closures have also been cited as an example of the policy. Other names for hafrada when discussed in English include unilateral separation or unilateral disengagement. Aaron Klieman has distinguished between partition plans based on "hafrada", which he translated as "detachment"; and "hipardut", translated as "disengagement." The Hebrew word Hafrada can imply both "separation" and "segregation." Critics have linked the Hafrada policy to apartheid , and others argue the word "hafrada" bears a "striking similarity" to the South African use of the term. Falk used the term repeatedly in his "Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967". According to the Milon and Masada dictionaries, hafrada translates into English as "separation", "division", "disengagement", "severance", "disassociation" or "divorce". The barrier is thus sometimes called gader ha'hafrada (separation fence) in Hebrew. The term Hafrada has striking similarities with the term apanheid, as this term mean 'apartness' in Afrikaans and Hafrada is the closest Hebrew equivalent." Gideon Levy (4 November 2000). "Republished as an excerpt of the original 28 October 2000 article in the Courrier International, under the title Au fil des jours, Périphéries explore quelques pistes – chroniques, critiques, citations, liens pointus : Israël-Palestine, revue de presse " . The Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary . Obviously the [Peace] Process moves in the opposite direction: separation. Actually, one of the most popular arguments use by the government to justify its policy is the "danger" ("the demographic bomb", "the Arab womb") of a "bi-national state" if no separation is made: the Process is thus a measure taken to secure the Jewish majority. The term ‘separation’ ‘’hafrada’’ has become extremely popular during the Process referring to fences built around Palestinian autonomous enclaves, to roads pave in the Territories exclusively for Israelis to the decrease of the number of Palestinians employed in Israel or allowed to enter into it altogether. The stereotypes of the Palestinian society as backward" have not changed either." Eric Rozenman (April–May 2001). Jeff Halper , Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). " "The Result of the Hafrada Policy is Quiet in Hebron, But All Await the Storm" (Hebrew)" . Nana.co.il Magazine (original from Channel 10 News). Common Dreams (originally published in The Baltimore Sun ). The Times of Israel . Rights envoy points to apartheid in Palestinian areas" .

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1292006521.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “english”. Today it says “policy of the government of israel to separate the israeli population from the palestinian population in the oc”. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
terror00011
apartheid00012
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

english

Now

policy of the government of israel to separate the israeli population from the palestinian population in the oc

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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