In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “multi-millionaire palestinian-canadian businessman”. Today it says “palestinian-canadian multi-millionaire businessman and the son of palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas”.
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.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015
Yasser Abbas is a Palestinian Canadian businessman and the son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas .1He was named in honor of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat . In 1983, he graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Washington State University.2His conspicuous wealth has caused "quiet controversy" in the Palestinian Territories.3Despite Abbas' father being accused—by former economic advisor to Yasir Arafat, Mohammed Rachid—of taking $100 million from the Palestinian government for himself, Abbas claims that his wealth comes from his own businesses. Abbas had worked for a number of contracting firms from the Persian Gulf from the 1980s until he left to Ramallah to start his own company in 1997. Abbas is the current owner of Falcon Tobacco, the company that controls all American made cigarette sales in all Palestinian territories. Yasser Abbas also is the Chairman of the Falcon Holding Group, a Palestinian investment firm that owns Falcon Electric Mechanical Contracting Company (FEMC). However, FEMC's success didn't come without the assistance from the U.S. government: The Company had been rewarded a contract for $1.89 million from the U.S. government during the Iraq war to build a sewage system in the town of Hebron .4
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 665371630.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Yasser Abba is a Palestinian Canadian businessman and the son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas . He was named in honor of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat . Abbas is a self-made millionaire who has amassed a "vast personal fortune" and owns a number of companies including Falcon Trading Group, which includes a major real estate corporation. His company Falcon Tobacco has a monopoly on the marketing of such American-made cigarettes such as Kent and Lucky Strike in the West Bank and Gaza Strip .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 334099796.
The opening as it stood in 2020 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Yasser Abbas ( ; born 1962/1963) is a multi-millionaire Palestinian-Canadian businessman, and the son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas . His conspicuous wealth has caused "quiet controversy" in the Palestinian Territories.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 923437447.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Palestinian-Canadian businessman Yasser Abbas ( ; born 8 February 1962) is a multi-millionaire Palestinian-Canadian businessman, and the son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas .His conspicuous wealth has caused controversy in the Palestinian Territories .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1171757234.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Palestinian-Canadian businessman (born 1962) Yasser Abbas ( Arabic : ياسر عباس ; born 8 February 1962) is a Palestinian-Canadian multi millionaire businessman, and the son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas . His conspicuous wealth has caused controversy in the Palestinian Territories .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296577860. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “multi-millionaire palestinian-canadian businessman”. Today it says “palestinian-canadian multi-millionaire businessman and the son of palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
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 October 7, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
palestinian-canadian multi-millionaire businessman and the son of palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas
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.
