Kamangir (Archer)

Angry Memri

Kamangir | October 30, 2006 | Category Iran

A recent thread of discussions in Guardian Unlimited (see) shows another Israeli overreaction similar to what I was talking about before (see). I have had very similar experiences with Israeli friends, too (see). A few years ago, Brian Whitaker wrote a piece titled “Selective Memri” (see),

For some time now, I have been receiving small gifts from a generous institute in the United States. The gifts are high-quality translations of articles from Arabic newspapers which the institute sends to me by email every few days, entirely free-of-charge….The organisation that makes these translations and sends them out is the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), based in Washington…Memri’s purpose, according to its website, is to bridge the language gap between the west - where few speak Arabic - and the Middle East, by “providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media”….Despite these high-minded statements, several things make me uneasy whenever I’m asked to look at a story circulated by Memri. First of all, it’s a rather mysterious organisation. Its website does not give the names of any people to contact, not even an office address….The second thing that makes me uneasy is 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. I am not alone in this unease….Memri might, of course, argue that it is seeking to encourage moderation by highlighting the blatant examples of intolerance and extremism. But if so, one would expect it - for the sake of non-partisanship - to publicise extremist articles in the Hebrew media too….

He also adds,

The reason for Memri’s air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon….Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin….

I see these as reasonable questions about an institute and its aims. This is how Memri responds (see),

Brian Whitaker’s Selective Memri is an example of selective journalism. Disregarding the Guardian’s own code - “A newspaper’s primary office is the gathering of news” - Whitaker has simply recycled inaccurate and previously published material. Two days before his piece appeared on the web, he called our Washington office to ask for the Arabic original of an article translated by Memri from the London daily Al-Hayat. He could have used this opportunity to check his facts. He chose not to do so. To start with, Memri is not a “mysterious organisation”. Our telephone number, fax and email appear on every dispatch. True, the office address is no longer posted on our website. Whitaker may scoff, but we have received threats from rightwing radicals in America. Had he asked, we would have provided him with our addresses in Washington, London, Berlin, Moscow and Jerusalem (as well as informing him that I retired from government office almost a decade ago)…. But then, facts might have got in the way of a “good story”…

I don’t get it. It is an obvious question to ask what Memri is exactly doing, with an ex-intelligence officer as its president. the bottom line is, it is all wrong, Memri is a decent academic institution. Why is Mr Carmon considering this a personal offense?

Thanks to Simon for the link.