The Middle East Media Research Institute
The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI for short, is a Middle Eastern press monitoring organization founded by former Israeli intelligence officers. Its headquarter is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in Jerusalem, Berlin, London, Rome, Shanghai 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 script, and publishes its analyses and in-depth reports on its website. The organization’s translations are regularly quoted by major international newspapers, and its work has generated strong criticism and praise. Several critics have accused MEMRI of selectivity stating that it consistently picks for translation and dissemination the most extreme views from Arabic and Farsi 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.
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.” Concerning this change in their ‘mission statement,’ Political Research Associates (PRA) 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.”
MEMRI’s goals and emphasis have evolved over the years; it originally translated articles in both Arabic and Hebrew. PRA, which studies the US political right, 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 hard line pro-Israel ideologues aligned with Israel’s Likud party.”
The organization became more prominent after the September 11, 2001 attacks, due to increased Western public interest in the Arab world and Iran. At that time, it expanded its staff considerably, setting up new branches outside the United States in early 2002. It has maintained longstanding relations with law enforcement agencies.
Starting in October 2006, they added The Islamist Websites Monitor Project focusing on the translated news, videos, and analysis of “major jihadi websites”
Here is one example of their work.
