One of six finalists up for election for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has on several occasions posted the inverted red triangle associated with Hamas and has accused Israel of falsifying claims of rape by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The Jerusalem Post was first alerted to Ravan Jaafar al-Taie when knowledge expert Dr. Shlomit Aharoni Lir posted on X that "the Wikimedia Foundation board elections raise serious concerns about anti-Israeli candidate Ravan among the six finalists."
"To combat bias and antisemitism on Wikipedia, those promoting hateful views should not serve on the board, regardless of their gender or ethnicity," she wrote.
Who is Taie?
Iraqi-national Taie joined Wikipedia Arabic in 2008 and was an admin for four years. In her application, she said she has created a total of 1000 articles, more than 24,000 edits, and founded the Iraqi Wikimedians user group. She also co-founded the Wikiwomen prize to increase the content of women in Wikipedia, and is a member of the MENA Regional Funds Committee (RFC).
In her video, she said she believes "deeply in the power of free knowledge."
Outside Wikipedia, she has worked as a field engineer in the oil and energy industry and is currently a Reservoir Performance Wireline Account Manager at SLB (formerly Schlumberger).
What is the Wikimedia Board of Trustees?
In the 2025 election, there will be two open seats as two other trustees will finish their term. A shortlist of six candidates is running in the community voting phase, including Taie.
All six candidates then submitted a three-minute pre-recorded video on August 6 in which they shared what makes them a strong candidate and what skills and expertise they will bring to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
The Wikimedia Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports and operates some of the most well-known free knowledge projects in the world, the most famous of which is Wikipedia. It is also the host of Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others.
It is worth noting that the foundation itself does not write or curate any of the content themselves, as volunteer editors do this.
The foundation's board of trustees supervises the activities of the foundation, acting like a board of directors.
The trustees set the strategic direction of the Foundation, approve the annual budget, and set community guidelines and legal policies.
According to the foundation, all candidates for the trusteeship must abide by the Universal Code of Conduct.
This stipulates that candidates must not carry out any behaviour intended to intimidate, outrage, or upset a person, or any behaviour where this would reasonably be considered the most likely main outcome.
It cites several examples of harassment, including using slurs or stereotypes, and any attacks based on personal characteristics such as ethnicity, race, religion, culture, and nationality.
It also says that behaviour in all Wikimedia projects, spaces and events, must be founded in respect and civility, without exceptions based on age, mental or physical disabilities, physical appearance, national, religious, ethnic and cultural background, caste, social class, language fluency, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex or career field.
What are her views?
The Jerusalem Post took a deep dive into Taie's social media history to see if it aligns with the principles outlined in the Code of Conduct.
On October 27, 2023, she posted "the history will remember the silence of the world while a new Holocaust is happening to turn GAZA to make it a new Hiroshima [sic]." Later on the same day, she posted, "Israel is committing a new Holocaust added to a new Hiroshima." According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis is a form of antisemitism.
On October 28, 2023, she reposted a post by Jackson Hinkle, which said, "Israel, who claims to be fighting Hamas, is currently storming a refugee camp in the West Bank. Only problem? Hamas is not in the West Bank." Hamas does actually have an extensive terror network in the West Bank, and has called for violent escalation amongst its supporters in the West Bank many times over the past few years.
On November 22, 2023, she posted "it's been happening for years, but no one cared at all until some of their owns got kidnapped. [sic]"
On December 4, 2023, she posted "If you ever feel stupid, just remember there are people out there who think Is*/ra£l is the victim!" [sic].
On December 10, 2023, she reposted a video that said "there is always a beginning to everything. October 7th was not it!" alongside the hashtag #GazaHolocaust.
On December 18, 2023, she tweeted the slightly ambiguous message "you arrived late" in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, alongside an inverted red triangle. The triangle symbol became synonymous with Hamas after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. While it isn't clear exactly what the message is referring to, it was posted on the same day as Hamas released a video featuring three elderly Israeli hostages in Gaza pleading, “Don’t let us grow old here.” Additionally, the hashtag #youarrivedlate and the message in the three languages was also used by several Hamas accounts on social media on the same day in relation to a video of IDF soldiers arriving in a tunnel in Gaza which Hamas had already evacuated. In other words, the implication is that Israel arrived too late, as Hamas had moved on.
On December 20, 2023, she tweeted: "And there are still many, many people who think that what happened on October 7 was only for the [Palestinian] prisoners [in Israel]! What happened on October 7 was for everything that happened during the 75 years before October 7!"
On December 23, 2023, Taie posted, "Israel was never and will never be a state of peace. Their only agenda since they came as refugees almost 80 years ago was to occupy all the land, and as descent colonizers, their fastest way is to commit genocides and ethnic cleansing to the indigenous people of Palestine."
On December 24, 2023, she posted on Instagram a cartoon of Jesus being crucified by an IDF soldier. Jesus is depicted wearing a keffiyeh as a loincloth. Alongside, she wrote the words "Jesus was Palestinian." The cartoon additionally indicates that Jews killed Jesus - another antisemitic trope.
On February 3, 2024, Taie posted another inverted red triangle, this time on a green background, with the words "Whoever gets used to it, betrays" [less literally translates as don't become accustomed to it]. The inverted red triangle on the green background again evokes Hamas, which uses green as its colour (see: headbands).
On August 7, 2024, she reposted another Hinkle tweet, which accused Israel of falsely claiming Hamas raped civilians on October 7. Hinkle write "Have any Western media outlets covered the video evidence of Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian hostages? They all covered the fake news of "rape attacks" on October 7 - why are they now silent about this?[sic]" There has been extensive news coverage, evidence, and independent reporting into Hamas's use of rape on October 7.
Most recently, on April 15, 2025, she wrote a post on Instagram about Saddam Hussein in which she claimed the former Iraqi dictator "committed acts of oppression, aggression, massacres, and genocide that surpassed even the Jews." Note, the Arabic translates as Jews only, and not Israelis.