From 2001, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has come to public prominence as a site that provides translations of the Middle Eastern press. MEMRI describes itself as an independent and objective organisation, even though almost all of its translations show Arabs in a negative light, particularly in regard to their stance towards Israel.
Someone who browses their internet site, www.memri.org, assuming that the translations are a representative example of the Arabic press, may be inclined to wonder why it is so full of statements that are inaccurate or crude. It would be more worthwhile to consider the nature of the organisation that produces the material.
Shortly after 11 September 2001, at the time when MEMRI was coming to international prominence, it changed its self-description on its website. Prior to September 11, the section on its website with its "mission statement" contained the following statement which is now absent:
"In its research, the institute puts emphasizes [sic] the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel."
The mission statement and self-description of the organisation make it clear that it is an Israeli organisation with close connections to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and its intelligence apparatus.
It also gives brief biographies of staff members, also now absent from the website. The president of the organization, reserve Colonel Yigal Carmon, "served in the IDF/Intelligence Branch from 1968 to 1988", was the Acting Head of Civil Administration in the West Bank (the euphemistic name for the illegal military occupation) from 1977 to 1982 (the years of Menachem Begin), and "was Advisor to Premiers Shamir and Rabin for Countering Terrorism from 1988 to 1993". Two of the other staff were members of IDF military intelligence, one was student coordinator for the World Zionist Organization, and one is a writer on Jabotinsky, who brokered the marriage between Zionism and fascism. The only other remaining staff member is a "stand-up comedian".
The original section of the website is preserved here.
The cross-checks that AMW has done of their translations usually indicate that they are accurate textually, but they often misdescribe the author. For example, on one occasion - picked up by a journalist at The Daily Telegraph - they stated that a one-off letter-writer to an Egyptian paper was actually a "columnist". They also often misdescribe the content of the articles in the headlines, so anyone just scanning through the titles would come to quite a mistaken view.
Examples of other mistakes are included in this article by the Guardian’s Middle East editor Brian Whitaker of 12 August 2002 entitled "Selective Memri".
By passing itself off as an independent organisation with a quasi-academic name, MEMRI has deceived a number of journalists into thinking it is a reliable source of information. The fact that it has used duplicity to procure this impression, and that almost all its staff members have been strongly partisan in their political and military work, should cast immediate doubt upon its credibility as an organisation and the accuracy of its work.