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Middle East Media Research Institute

Founded	1998
Founder	Yigal Carmon
Type	501(c)(3) non-profit
Focus	Arabic and Persian media.
Location	Washington, D.C.
Product	Translation and original analysis services.
Method	Media monitoring
Key people	Yigal Carmon (President)
Website	www.memri.org

The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI for short, is a Middle Eastern press monitoring organization. Its headquarters is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in Jerusalem, Berlin, London, Rome, Shanghai, Baghdad, and Tokyo. MEMRI was co-founded in 1998 by Yigal Carmon, a former colonel in Israeli military intelligence, and another Israeli Meyrav Wurmser. It provides a free source of English language translations of material published in Arabic and Persian, and publishes its analyses and in-depth reports on its website - although it also offers specialized content for a fee.

Objectives and projects

MEMRI's current mission statement states the organization "explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu-Pashtu media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East." Until 2001, its Mission Statement stated that the institute also emphasizes "the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel." MEMRI's goals and emphasis have evolved over the years; it originally translated articles in both Arabic and Hebrew.

Concerning this change in their ‘mission statement,’ Political Research Associates (PRA), which studies the US political right, notes that it occurred three weeks after the September 11 attacks, and considers MEMRI "was previously more forthcoming about its political orientation in its self-description and in staff profiles on its website." PRA considers that “MEMRI's slogan, ‘Bridging the Language Gap Between the Middle East and the West,’ does not convey the institute's stridently pro-Israel and anti-Arab political bias.” It further notes, that MEMRI's founders, Wurmser and Carmon, “are both hardline pro-Israel ideologues aligned with Israel's Likud party.”

The organization indirectly gained public prominence as a source of news and analysis about the Muslim world, following the September 11 attacks and the subsequent "war on terrorism" by the Bush administration. According to MEMRI, its translations and reports are distributed to "congresspersons, congressional staff, policy makers, journalists, academics, and interested parties." According to PRA, MEMRI's translated articles and its commentary are routinely cited in national media outlets in the United States, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, while analyses by MEMRI staff and officers are frequently published by right-wing and neoconservative media outlets such as National Review, Fox News, Commentary, and the Weekly Standard. PRA writes that both critics and supporters of MEMRI note its increasing influence in shaping perceptions of the Middle East. It has maintained longstanding relations with law enforcement agencies.

According to MEMRI's website, most of the translations and analyses that it conducts fall under several main projects, including:

• Jihad and Terrorism Studies Project
• U.S. And the Middle East
• Reform in the Middle East and North Africa
• Arab-Israeli Conflict
• Inter-Arab Relations
• Antisemitism Documentation Project

Starting in October 2006, they added The Islamist Websites Monitor Project focusing on the translated news, videos, and analysis of "major jihadi websites".

Languages

MEMRI monitors primary sources in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu/Pashtu, Dari, and Hindi media and other material from the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and Arab and Muslim communities in the West. These include newspaper articles, sermons, speeches and interviews, websites, TV broadcasts, and schoolbooks.

MEMRI provides translations and analyses into: English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese.

Staff

When founded in 1998, MEMRI's staff of seven included three who had formerly served in military intelligence in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). MEMRI president and founder Yigal Carmon states that MEMRI's current staff includes "people of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths hold a range of political views."

• Yigal Carmon — MEMRI's founder and President. Carmon is fluent in Arabic. He served as Colonel in the Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel) from 1968 to 1988. He was Acting Head of Civil Administration in the West Bank and the adviser on Arab affairs to the civil administration from 1977 to 1982. He advised Prime Ministers Shamir and Rabin on countering Palestinian militants from 1988 to 1993. In 1991 and 1992 Carmon was a senior member of the Israeli delegation at peace negotiations with Syria in Madrid and Washington.

• Steven Stalinsky, has been Executive Director of MEMRI for a decade. He holds a M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and a B.A. in Religious Studies. Prior to joining MEMRI, Stalinsky spent a decade in Washington, D.C. at various private and government think-tanks, as well as engaging in campaign and political endeavors beginning as an intern for Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and on the Clinton/Gore presidential campaign. According to the MEMRI website, he has briefed staff of the White House, State Department, Homeland Security, Justice Department, Office of Director of National Intelligence, Government Accountability Office, and other institutions. His articles and research have been cited in official United Nations documents, as well as by members of the U.K. and Canadian parliaments and international media.

• Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen, is a Senior Analyst at MEMRI and editor of MEMRI's Economic Blog and has conducted extensive translations and analysis on Iraq, and he was the first to translate the "Oil for Food" list. He received a Ph.D. in development planning from the University of Michigan and spent most of his professional career at the World Bank and has consulted for the International Monetary Fund. He has since focused on the fall of Saddam and the fledgling democracy in his native Iraq, including the historic Iraqi election held since then, in which he assisted in voting campaigns for Iraqi expatriates.

• Professor Menahem Milson is chairman of MEMRI's Board of Advisors. He has been a professor at Hebrew University in Arabic literature since 1963 and has served as head of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities (1991/2-1997/8), and Provost of the Rothberg International School (1999–2002) and has been a visiting fellow at academic institutions in the United States and England. He has published extensively on modern Egyptian writers. Between 1976 to 1978, then-Minister of Defense Shimon Peres appointed Milson as an adviser on Arab affairs to the Israeli military where he became the No. 2 adviser. In 1981, then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon returned Milson as head of the civil administration of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a position he kept until 1982.

• Tufail Ahmad, a British journalist of Indian origin, studied Social Systems for an M.A. at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and received an M.A. in War Studies at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He is Director of MEMRI’s Urdu-Pashtu Media Project, which monitors the media of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His research is focused on jihadist movements in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, as well as on counterterrorism policies and issues of cultural and religious freedom in the South Asian region, according to MEMRI. Prior to joining MEMRI, he worked for the BBC Urdu Service in London.

• Mansour Al-Hadj, from Saudi Arabia, is the director of MEMRI’s "Reform in The Arab and Muslim World project." Before joining MEMRI, Mr. Al-Hadj was the senior reporter for AAFAQ Magazine, an Arabic news website that focuses on Reform and Human Rights in the Middle East. Al-Hadj has participated in multiple briefings on Capitol Hill.

• Stephen D’Ettorre is MEMRI’s Director of Government Affairs. He is MEMRI’s liaison to Capitol Hill, U.S. Federal agencies, and the U.S. military, as well as international government agencies and NGOs. Prior to joining MEMRI, Mr. D’Ettorre worked for the United States Senate in both personal and committee offices. He earned a J.D. in 2002 and holds a B.A. in U.S. History.

The Board of directors and advisors of MEMRI includes Elie Wiesel, John Bolton, Ehud Barak, Norman Podhoretz, Paul Bremer, Nathan Sharansky, Edgar Bronfman

Financial support

MEMRI is registered in the US with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. They have a policy of not accepting money from governments, relying instead on around 250 private donors, including other organizations and foundations.

MediaTransparency, an organization that monitors the financial ties of conservative think tanks to conservative foundations in the United States, reported that for the years 1999 to 2004, MEMRI received $100,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc., $100,000 from The Randolph Foundation, and $5,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation.

MEMRI's U.S. income statement of June 2004 stated that its total U.S. revenue was US$2,571,899, its total U.S. functional expenses were $2,254,990, and that it possessed net assets of $700,784. Charity Navigator, an organization that evaluates the financial health of America's largest charities, has given MEMRI a four-star (exceptional) rating, meaning that it "... exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause" when rated on its financial health.

Reception

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The organization's translations are regularly quoted by major international newspapers, and its work has generated strong criticism and praise. Critics have accused MEMRI of producing inaccurate, unreliable translations with undue emphasis and selectivity in translating and disseminating the most extreme views from Arabic and Persian media, which portray the Arab and Muslim world in a negative light, while ignoring moderate views that are often found in the same media outlets. Other critics charge that while MEMRI does sometimes translate pro-US or pro-democracy voices in the regional media, it systematically leaves out intelligent criticism of Western-style democracy, US and Israeli policy and secularism.

MEMRI's work has been attacked on three grounds: that their work is biased; that they choose articles to translate selectively so as to give an unrepresentative view of the media they are reporting on; and that some of their translations are inaccurate. MEMRI has responded to the attacks of critics, stating that their work is not biased; that they in fact choose representative articles from the Arab media that accurately reflect the opinions expressed, and that their translations are highly accurate. The Washington based Institute for Research Middle Eastern Policy, in an analysis of American Middle East foreign policy think tanks lack of credibility, has critisized MEMRI for funding that is too highly concentrated (three donors account for over 58% of MEMRI’s income), lack of peer review and a reactive, tactically driven research agenda.

Accusations of bias

Several commentators, such as CNN's Arabic department, have claimed that the transcript of the April 13 show (2007) provided by MEMRI contains numerous translation errors and undue emphases. Brian Whitaker, the Middle East editor for the Guardian newspaper said "My problem with Memri is that it poses as a research institute when it's basically a propaganda operation," to "further the political agenda of Israel."

Whitaker complained that MERMI's website does not "mention" Carmon's employment for Israeli intelligence, or Meyrav Wurmser's "extreme brand of Zionism." Whitaker believes MERMI is not a "trustworthy vehicle" given the founders political background."

Selectivity

Several critics have accused MEMRI of selectivity. They state that MEMRI consistently picks for translation and dissemination the most extreme views, which portray the Arab and Muslim world in a negative light, while ignoring moderate views that are often found in the same media outlets. Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle East History at the University of Michigan, argues MEMRI has a tendency to "cleverly cherry-pick the vast Arabic press, which serves 300 million people, for the most extreme and objectionable articles and editorials" Former CIA counterintelligence official Vincent Cannistraro also charged that "MEMRI is selective and acts as propagandists for a political point of view which follows the extreme right of Likud." Laila Lalami, writing in The Nation, states that MEMRI "consistently picks the most violent, hateful rubbish it can find, translates it and distributes it in e-mail newsletters to media and members of Congress in Washington". As a result, critics such as Ken Livingstone state, MEMRI's analyses are "distortion."

Translation inaccuracy

The accuracy of MEMRI's translations are often disputed, as in the case of MEMRI's translation of a 2004 Osama bin Laden video, which MEMRI defended. Norman Finkelstein, in an interview with the Muslim newspaper In Focus compared MEMRI to the "propaganda techniques" of the Nazis.

MEMRI defends their translation of the show, saying: "Yes, we stand by the translation by the very words, by the context, by the syntax, and every measure of the translation."

Halim Barakat described MEMRI as a "a propaganda organization dedicated to representing Arabs and Muslims as anti-semites." Barakat claims an essay he wrote for the Al-Hayat Daily of London titled The Wild Beast that Zionism Created: Self-Destruction, was mistranslated by MEMRI as Jews Have Lost Their Humanity. He further stated "Every time I wrote Zionism, MEMRI replaced the word by Jew or Judaism. They want to give the impression that I’m not criticizing Israeli policy, but that what I’m saying is anti-Semitic". According to Barakat, he was subject to wide-spread condemnation from faculty and his office was "flooded with hatemail." Aviel Roshwald accused Barakat in an article he published of promoting a "demonization of Israel and of Jews" based on the translations provided by MEMRI. Roshwald was later criticized for not verifying the translation.

In 2007, CNN correspondent Atika Shubert and Arabic translators accused MEMRI of mistranslating portions of a Palestinian children's television programme.

"Media watchdog MEMRI translates one caller as saying - quote - 'We will annihilate the Jews,"' said Shubert. "But, according to several Arabic speakers used by CNN, the caller actually says 'The Jews are killing us."'

CNN's Glenn Beck later invited Yigal Carmon onto his program to comment on the mistranslation. Carmon criticized CNN's translators understanding of Arabic stating: "Even someone who doesn't know Arabic would listen to the tape and would hear the word 'Jews' is at the end, and also it means it is something to be done to the Jews, not by the Jews. And she (Octavia Nasr) insisted, no the word is in the beginning. I said: 'Octavia, you just don't get it. It is at the end'". Brian Whitaker, the Middle East editor for the Guardian newspaper (UK) later pointed out that the word order in Arabic is not the same as in English: "the verb comes first and so a sentence in Arabic which literally says 'Are shooting at us the Jews' means 'The Jews are shooting at us'".

Brian Whitaker wrote in a blog for the Guardian newspaper that in the translation of the video, showing Farfour eliciting political comments from a young girl named Sanabel, the MEMRI transcript misrepresents the segment. Farfour asks Sanabel what she will do and, after a pause says "I'll shoot", MEMRI attributed the phrase said by Farfour, ("I'll shoot"), as the girl's reply while ignoring her actual reply ("I'm going to draw a picture"). Whitaker and others commented that a statement uttered by the same child, ("We're going to resist"), had been given an unduly aggressive interpretation by MEMRI as ("We want to fight"). Also, where MEMRI translated the girl as saying the highly controversial remark ("We will annihilate the Jews"), Whitaker and others, including Arabic speakers used by CNN, insist that based on careful listening to the low quality video clip, the girl is saying "Bitokhoona al-yahood", variously interpreted as, "The Jews shoot us" or "The Jews are killing us."

In response to accusations of inaccuracies and distortion, Yigal Carmon, said:

As an institute of research, we want MEMRI to present translations to people who wish to be informed on the ideas circulating in the Middle East. We aim to reflect reality. If knowledge of this reality should benefit one side or another, then so be it.

In an e-mail debate with Carmon, Whitaker asked about MEMRI's November 2000 translation of an interview given by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to al-Ahram al-Arabi. One question asked by the interviewer was: "How do you deal with the Jews who are besieging al-Aqsa and are scattered around it?" which was translated as: "How do you feel about the Jews?". MEMRI cut out the first part of the reply and combined it with the answer to the next question which, Whitaker claimed, made "Arabs look more anti-semitic than they are". Carmon admitted this was an error in translation but defended combining the two replies as both questions referred to the same subject. Carmon rejected other claims of distortion by Whitaker, saying: "it is perhaps reassuring that you had to go back so far to find a mistake ... You accused us of distortion by omission but when asked to provide examples of trends and views we have missed, you have failed to answer." Carmon also accused Whitaker of "using insults rather than evidence" in his criticism of MEMRI.

Whitaker claims that although Memri's translations are selective and often out of context, they are usually accurate, stating: "When errors do occur, it's difficult to attribute them to incompetence or accidental lapses ... there appears to be a political motive."

Praise for MEMRI

MEMRI responds to the criticism by saying that the media had a tendency to whitewash statements of Arab leaders, and that its translations are accurate representations: "Memri has never claimed to 'represent the view of the Arabic media', but rather to reflect, through our translations, general trends which are widespread and topical." John Lloyd has defended MEMRI in the New Statesmen:

One beneficial side effect of the focus on the Middle East is that we now have available much more information on the discourse of the Arab world. The most powerful medium for this is (naturally) a Washington-based think-tank, the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), started in 1998 by the former Israeli intelligence officer and Arabist Yigal Carmon. Memri aimed to bring the previously largely enclosed and unknown Arab talk about the west to western eyes and ears: it is a sobering experience to read on the internet Memri's vast store of translations from many media, and to note how much of what is written is conspiratorial, vicious and unyieldingly hateful. Memri and Carmon have been accused of selecting the worst of a diverse media: however, the sheer range of what is available weakens that criticism, as does support for the initiative by Arab liberals. The Iraqi exile Kanan Makiya, for example, wrote in the spring 2002 issue of Dissent that Arab intellectuals have allowed a mixture of victimhood and revenge to take hold of popular culture, with few if any dissenting voices.

Thomas L. Friedman, a political opinion columnist for the New York Times, credits MEMRI with helping to "shine a spotlight on hate speech wherever it appears:"

Those who spread hate do not like to be exposed, noted Yigal Carmon, the founder of Memri, which monitors the Arab-Muslim media. The hate spreaders assume that they are talking only to their own, in their own language, and can get away with murder. When their words are spotlighted, they often feel pressure to retract, defend or explain them.

Jay Nordlinger, the managing editor of National Review, similarly writes:

Wading or clicking through MEMRI's materials can be a depressing act, but it is also illusion-dispelling, and therefore constructive. This one institute is worth a hundred reality-twisting Middle Eastern Studies departments in the U.S. Furthermore, listening to Arabs — reading what they say in their newspapers, hearing what they say on television — is a way of taking them seriously: a way of not condescending to them, of admitting that they have useful things to tell us, one way or the other. Years ago, Solzhenitsyn exhorted, "Live not by lies." We might say, in these new circumstances, "Live not by ignorance about lies, either." Anyone still has the right to avert his eyes, of course. But no one can say that that is not a choice.

See also

• Mideastwire
• Palestinian Media Watch
• Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict
• Hasbara

References

1. ^ MEMRI About Us, Memri.org, accessed July 23, 2006
2. Memri.org Mission Statement, at web.archive.org, accessed July 2, 2001
3. ^ Middle East Media Research Institute at Political Research Associates
4. John Baron: Israeli Web site Debka.com at center of New York ‘dirty bomb’ tip The Jewish Journal, August 16, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2009.
5. The Islamist Websites Monitor No. 1, Memri.org, accessed January 28, 2006
6. ^ Brian Whitaker, Selective Memri, Guardian Unlimited, Monday August 12, 2002
7. Memri.org Mission Statement, at web.archive.org, accessed Dec 2 1998
8. ^ Email debate: Yigal Carmon and Brian Whitaker at Guardian Unlimited, January 28, 2003 Cite error: The named reference "Debate" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
9. ^ One on One with Yigal Carmon: If MEMRI serves... Jerusalem Post, Nov. 16, 2006 Cite error: The named reference "jpint" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
10. ^ "MEMRI Website - About Us]
11. William B. Quandt, The Middle East: Ten Years after Camp David, Brookings Institution Press, 1988, ISBN 0815772939, page 308
12. Lesley Pearl, Ex-West Bank `mayor' in Berkeley visit, says Jews must study Arab culture, Jewish news weekly of Northern California, November 24, 1995
13. Growing Doubts at Home Time Magazine, May 17, 1982
14. "tufailahmad.com"
15. "AAFAQ"
16. Thanks for the MEMRI (.org) Jay Nordlinger, National Review, September 13, 2004, accessed July 23, 2006
17. Cursor, Inc. About Us cursor.org accessed Oct. 15 2007
18. MEMRI Media Transparency Profile, accessed Oct. 7 2007
19. Charity Navigator About Us charitynavigator.org accessed Oct. 15 2007
20. Charity Navigator, Charity Navigator Rating - The Middle East Media Research Institute
21. Charity Navigator, What Do Our Ratings Mean, accessed Oct. 8, 2007
22. ^ Laila Lalami, "Missionary Position," The Nation (19 June 2006) p. 32.
23. ^ Leila Hudson, "The New Ivory Towers: Think Tanks, Strategic Studies and 'Counterrealism'," Middle East Policy 12:4 (Winter 2005) p. 130.
24. ^ Debate on CNN
25. America’s Middle East foreign policy think tanks: What went wrong? Institute for Research Middle Eastern Policy
26. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48946
27. Bin Laden's Audio: Threat to States?, Professor Juan Cole Informed Comment blog, November 2, 2004 - accessed on 1/08/07
28. Richard H. Curtiss, "Meyrav Wurmser: the Neocons' Den Mother," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 26.3 (April 2007) p17.
29. "Propaganda that widens the Arab-West divide - Gained in translation". Le Monde Diplomatique. October 2005. See in French (freely available) "Traduction ou trahison? Désinformation à l'israélienne". Le Monde Diplomatique. October 2005. (Persian translation also available for free here)
30. ^ Mayor of London Press Release
31. Rima Barakat, "MEMRI's systematic distortions," Rocky Mountain News (27 March 2006) p. 35A.
32. ^ Whitaker, Brian (15 May 2007). "Arabic under fire". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
33. Yigal Carmon Osama Bin Laden Tape Threatens U.S. States memri.org, 1 November 2004
34. Ramona Smith, "Did Osama send election threat?," Philadelphia Daily News (2 November 2004).
35. TBS 13
36. Lawrence Swaim, MEMRI is 'propaganda machine' expert says, InFocus, June 7, 2007
37. ^ "Paula Zahn Now" TV show transcript, CNN transcripts, aired 2007-05-08
38. Meyrav Wurmser: The Neocons’ Den Mother Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
39. Désinformation à l’israélienne Le Monde diplomatique
40. Institute for Policy Studies
41. Halim Barakat The story of an article
42. MEMRI uses the same "Propaganda Techniques as the NAZI's" Muslim Public Affairs Centre
43. POLITICS-US: Pro-Israel Group's Money Trail Veers Hard Right (IPS, 21.10.2009)
44. Rosemary Church, Jim Clancy, Atika Shubert, Ben Wedeman, Neil Connery, John Vause, Eunice Yoon, Becky Anderson, Jill Dougherty, "Recruiting Next Generation of Militants: Mickey Mouse-Like Character Reaches Out to Palestinian Children," Your World Today (CNN Transcripts) aired 9 May 2007.
45. ^ "Arabic under fire" by Brian Whitaker, Guardian.co.uk, 2007-05-15
46. John Lloyd, "Pay any price, bear any burden?," New Statesman (3 February 2003).
47. Friedman, Thomas L. "Giving the Hatemongers No Place to Hide." July 22, 2005. Retrieved on March 23, 2009.
48. Jay Nordlinger, Thanks for the MEMRI (.org) National Review May 6, 2002

External links

• MEMRI website

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from September 2010
• Arab media
• Iranian media
• Turkish media
• Antisemitism
• Middle East
• American Middle Eastern studies
• Non-profit organizations based in the United States
• International non-profit organizations
• Organizations established in 1998
• Media analysis organizations
• Zionism in the United States