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Middle East Media Research Institute

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The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI for short, is a Middle Eastern press monitoring organization located in Washington, D.C., with branch offices in Jerusalem, Berlin, London, and Tokyo. It provides translations of Arabic and Persian media as well as original analyses of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

MEMRI was founded in 1998 by Yigal Carmon along with Dr. Meyrav Wurmser. The organization became more prominent after the September 11, 2001 attacks, due to increased Western public interest in Arab and Iranian affairs. At that time, it expanded its staff considerably, setting up new branches outside the United States in early 2002.

MEMRI is a free source of English language translations of material published in Arabic and Persian. MEMRI publishes its translations, analyses, and in-depth reports on its Web site. MEMRI has been regularly quoted by major international newspapers. The organization has attracted both criticism and support for its work.

Objectives and projects

MEMRI's current "about us" page states, "The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) 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, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East."[1]

MEMRI's goals have evolved over the years, originally translating Arabic and Hebrew. Until 2001, its Mission Statement included a statement that "MEMRI relies on primary source material that it translates from the original Arabic and Hebrew... In its research, the institute emphasizes the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel."[2]

MEMRI's translated articles and media analysis focus on the following areas:

  • 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". [3]

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)[4]. MEMRI's President and founder Yigal Carmon claims that its current staff includes "people of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths [who] hold a range of political views"[5]

Prominent staff

  • Yigal Carmon — MEMRI's President. Carmon is fluent in Arabic. He served as Colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Intelligence Branch from 1968 to 1988. After retiring from the IDF, he served as Acting Head of Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria and the Advisor on Arab Affairs to the Civil Administration from From 1977 to 1982, and adivsed Prime Ministers Shamir and Rabin on Countering Terrorism from 1988 to 1993. In 1991 and 1992 Carmon was a senior member of the Israeli Delegation to peace negotiations with Syria in Madrid and Washington.
  • Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli received a Ph.D. in development planning from the University of Michigan. He spent most of his professional career at the World Bank, and has consulted for the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Raphaeli, an Iraqi-born, joined the Middle Media Research Institute (MEMRI)as a senior analyst in 2001.
  • Prof. Menahem Milson (Academic Advisor), is a professor at Hebrew University in Arabic literature, and has served as head of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. He has published extensively on modern Egyptian writers. His book on Egypt's great humanist, Najib Mahfuz - Najib Mahfuz: The Novelist-Philosopher of Cairo appeared in 1998.

Financial support

MEMRI is registered in the US with the IRS as a 501(c)3,[1] which means that it is exempt from federal taxation on income. Jay Nordlinger wrote, in the National Review, that "MEMRI exists entirely on private donations — there are about 250 donors, including some foundations — and will not accept any government money, as a matter of policy."[6]

Although MEMRI does not publicly report contributors to its charity, MediaTransparency, an organization which monitors the financial ties of conservative think tanks to conservative foundations in the United States, reports 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 $5000 from the John M. Olin Foundation

MEMRI's U.S. income statement (06/2004) states that its' total U.S. revenue was US$2,571,899, its' total U.S. functional expenses were US$2,254,990, and that it possessed net assets of US$700,784. It has been given a four-star (exceptional) rating by Charity Navigator, meaning that it "..exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause" when rated solely by the "charity's financial health". [7]

Controversy

Criticism

  • Bias
Brian Whitaker, the Middle East editor for the UK Guardian newspaper, has been one of the most outspoken critics of MEMRI, writing: "My problem with Memri is that it poses as a research institute when it's basically a propaganda operation,"[5] and that "the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel."[8]
Whitaker has also complained that "MEMRI's website does not mention you [Carmon] or your work for Israeli intelligence. Nor does it mention MEMRI's co-founder, Meyrav Wurmser, and her extreme brand of Zionism ... Given your political background, it's legitimate to ask whether MEMRI is a trustworthy vehicle"[5]
Hussein Ibish, a spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee comments that "There is of course some horrific stuff in the Arab press, but one tends to forget that the American press can also be very nasty. MEMRI performs a useful function but unfortunately they have a pro-Israel, right-wing agenda."[9]
  • Selectivity
According to Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle East History at the University of Michigan, 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"[10] Similarly, Ibrahim Hooper, a director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, stated in the Washington Times that "MEMRI's intent is to find the worst possible quotes from the Muslim world and disseminate them as widely as possible."[8]
William Rugh, former US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, describes MEMRI as a service which "does not present a balanced or complete picture of the Arab print media. ...Quotes are selected to portray Arabs as preaching hatred against Jews and westerners, praising violence and refusing any peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue."[11]
Leila Hudson writes in the journal Middle East Policy, "MEMRI simultaneously highlights stories emphasizing the most extreme stereotypes of clashing Arab and Islamic civilization, which would not otherwise come to light. In effect, it amplifies the noise that most effectively distracts from the projects of engagement and negotiation. This is compounded by the interlinked series of websites, blogs and forums on the right wing of the think-tank periphery. Like the Israeli disinformation site Debka.com, MEMRI produces and amplifies noise, while buttressing the weak 'clash of civilizations' theory with selective extremist writing."[12]
Ken Livingstone, former British MP and the current Mayor of London, has accused MEMRI of "outright distortion".[13] In a report he commissioned to explain his reasons for meeting with controversial Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, he stated of MEMRI that: "The translation and selection of quotes tend to portray Islam in a very negative light." [14]
  • Translation inaccuracy
The accuracy of MEMRI's translations is sometimes disputed.[15][16][5][14]. For example, a controversy arose over MEMRI's translation of the Arabic words "ay wilayah" in the 2004 Osama bin Laden video. Osama bin Laden's statement was widely translated as: "Every state that does not toy with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security".[17] The US media in general translated "state" as nation-state, and viewed Bin Laden's statement as a warning to the US to stop intervening in the Middle East in order to guarantee US security[15]. But MEMRI interpreted "state" in the sense of a US state rather than a nation-state. MEMRI's translation was widely reported since it differed from most earlier translations and since MEMRI's "Special Alert" published along with Bin Laden's speech the weekend before the 2004 presidential election stated that: "Osama bin Laden ... included a specific threat to 'each U.S. state,' designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush."[15] The media watchdog site mediamatters.org noted that: "MEMRI's translation has been challenged by a number of scholars and experts," of whom they quote Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle East History at the University of Michigan; Omer Taspinar, a foreign policy studies research fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert and director of the RAND Corp's Washington DC office. They include Juan Cole's statement that bin Laden: "cannot possibly mean that he thinks Rhode Island is in a position to [trifle with Muslims' security]"[10][16] Brian Whitaker went even further, commenting that it was "a clever bit of election propoganda on MEMRI's part, implying that Bin Laden wanted Americans to vote for Kerry"[18]

Response to Criticism

Yigal Carmon, MEMRI President, has responded to various claims of critics:

  • On claims of bias
"You are right: we do have an agenda. 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."[5]
"Whatever the agenda, the research has to be scientific. If it isn't - if we were trying to prove that some phenomenon existed when it didn't, or vice versa - it wouldn't be an agenda, it would be bias[19]
Carmon replied to Whitaker's complaint that his and Wurmsyers backgrounds were not detailed on the MEMRI Web site by saying, "As for myself, I make no secret of my past. I appear regularly on various media outlets, including Al-Jazeera, and my background is always mentioned. [Whitaker] omitted the fact that I retired from service over 10 years ago." Carmon also noted that Meyrav Wurmser had left MEMRI many years before Whitaker made his complaint that her background was not outlined on the MEMRI Web site[5]'
  • On claims of selectivity
"In 1994-5, before MEMRI was formally established, I taped TV broadcasts of [ Palestinian Authority chairman] Arafat calling for jihad. The reaction to that tape was: 'Kill the messenger'...And I protested by saying, 'But it's not me [calling for jihad]; it's him [Arafat].'...I asked a very senior journalist, 'Why are you criticizing our work? We're merely revealing the truth.' [He replied] 'There is no such thing as truth...Every news item must be judged by the question of whom it serves. And you are serving the enemies of peace.' Horrified, I retorted, "And you're the one who's considered the reliable journalist, while I'm seen as biased?' So he said, 'If you want to play naive, do it with someone else, not with me. You know I'm right.' 'No,' I said. 'I do not know that you're right. There is such a thing as truth, and it is impartial'"[19]
"We aim to reflect main trends of thought and when possible general public opinion. We feature the most topical issues on the Middle Eastern or international agenda...We also translate discussions on social issues, such as the status of women in Egypt (Special Dispatches 392, 393, January 2002) and debates on Al-Jazeera TV which reach an estimated 60 million viewers. When controversial matters are aired before such a large audience, Memri does not need to fight shy of translating their contents.
Are the examples chosen extreme? While some of the topics covered do seem extreme to the western reader, they are an accurate representation of what appears in the Arab and Farsi [Persian] media...if mainstream papers repeatedly publish the Jewish blood libel; accuse Jews and Americans of deliberately spreading Aids or the US of dropping genetically modified foods with the intention of harming people in Afghanistan (the latter allegation made by no less than the editor in chief of the most important government daily in Egypt) Memri is entitled to translate these articles...there are even more extreme views - like those expressed by most Islamist organisations - which we rarely translate." ...
"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. You [Brian Whitaker] accused us of distortion by omission but when asked to provide examples of trends and views we have missed, you have failed to answer."[5]
  • On claims of translation inaccuracy
MEMRI asserted that: "the U.S. media in general mistranslated the words" ay wilayah and that the modern standard Arabic definition of "wilayah" as "province or administrative district" as in Arabic name of the United States of America, (الولايات الأمريكية المتح), was what bin Laden meant, rather than nation-states.[15] MEMRI cited a post on an Islamist website which made the threats to US states explicit. Robert Fisk said in an interview that "(bin Laden) always had this notion… this idea that the American people would shrug off the American government, and would -- their individual states of the union would become individual countries". [20] Conservative commentators asserted that this was bin Laden "voting" for John Kerry, but the later consensus within the CIA is that the video as a whole was most probably meant to assist George W Bush's re-election. [21]

Support

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" and "presenting the voices of the...courageous Arab or Muslim intellectual, cleric or columnist (who) publishes an essay in his or her media calling on fellow Muslims to deal with the cancer in their midst. The truth tellers' words also need to be disseminated globally." Friedman quotes Husain Haqqani, author of the book 'Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military': "The rulers in these countries have no interest in amplifying the voices of moderates because the moderates often disagree with the rulers as much as they disagree with the extremists...You have to deal us moderates into the game by helping to amplify our voices and exposing the extremists and their amen corner."[22]

Brad Sherman, a Congressman and ranking member of the United States House of Representatives International Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Non-proliferation, wrote the introduction to a MEMRI report on Arab and Iranian reactions to 9/11: "Since MEMRI's inception eight years ago, Americans and others in the West have had at least one outstanding source of information on the media of the Arab world, Iran and Turkey. MEMRI provides timely translations of materials that you will find nowhere else. As a member of Congress on the House International Relations Committee, and the top Democratic member of its Terrorism Subcommittee, I have utilized MEMRI.org to better understand the Middle East and its political culture." [citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b MEMRI About Us, Memri.org, accessed July 23 2006
  2. ^ Memri.org Mission Statement, at web.archive.org, accessed July 2 2001
  3. ^ The Islamist Websites Monitor No. 1, Memri.org, accessed January 28 2006
  4. ^ Memri.org Mission Statement, at web.archive.org, accessed Dec 2 1998
  5. ^ a b c d e f g 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).
  6. ^ Thanks for the MEMRI (.org) Jay Nordlinger, National Review, September 13 2004, accessed July 23 2006
  7. ^ Charity Navigator, Charity Navigator Rating - The Middle East Media Research Institute
  8. ^ a b Brian Whitaker, Selective Memri, Guardian Unlimited, Monday August 12, 2002
  9. ^ , Marc Perelman, No Longer Obscure, MEMRI Translates the Arab World: But Detractors Say a Right-Wing Agenda Distorts Think-Tank's Service to Journalists, The Forward, December 7, 2001.
  10. ^ a b Bin Laden's Audio: Threat to States?, Professor Juan Cole Informed Comment blog, November 2 2004
  11. ^ Brian Whitaker, Language matters, Guardian Unlimited, September 28, 2005
  12. ^ Leila Hudson, "The New Ivory Towers: Think Tanks, Strategic Studies and 'Counterrealism'," Middle East Policy 12:4 (Winter 2005) p. 130.
  13. ^ "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)
  14. ^ a b Mayor of London Press Release
  15. ^ a b c d Yigal Carmon Osama Bin Laden Tape Threatens U.S. States memri.org, 1 November 2004
  16. ^ a b Ramona Smith, "Did Osama send election threat?," Philadelphia Daily News (2 November 2004).
  17. ^ Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech at Al-Jazeera. 01 November 2004
  18. ^ [1]
  19. ^ a b One on One with Yigal Carmon: If MEMRI serves..., Jerusalem Post, Nov. 15, 2006
  20. ^ Robert Fisk: "Bin Laden's Vote is For George Bush", Democracy Now, Monday, November 1st, 2004
  21. ^ Robert Parry, CIA: Osama Helped Bush in '04, Consortiumnews.com, July 4, 2006
  22. ^ Giving the Hatemongers No Place to Hide reprinted in Der Spiegel Online

See also

MEMRI Web sites

Other Middle-east Translation Services

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