Yigal Carmon

Yigal Carmon (Hebrew יגאל כרמון) (born 1946) is the president and cofounder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an organization which monitors and translates Arabic and Persian publications; radio and TV broadcasts; and religious sermons into many languages and circulates them over the Internet.

Carmon is fluent in Arabic. He has also testified before the US Congress and European parliaments.

According to Ruthie Blum, writing in the Jerusalem Post, Carmon and MEMRI's translations of material appearing in the Arabic and Persian media, "have been received with a combination of angst and ambivalence on the part of the press and politicians who don't like what they're seeing."

Carmon relates that his experience of portraying difficult realities in the Arab-Muslim world: "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].' To which they replied, 'That doesn't matter.'. Then one day, I asked a very senior journalist with whom I was friendly, 'Why are you criticizing our work? We're merely revealing the truth.' His reply is one I'll never forget: 'There is no such thing as truth,' he said. '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'

"If they copy the Arabic version...into English, then they will be committing suicide. Because the whole world will see what role Al Jazeera is playing in making the Muslim world extreme....[On the other hand, if the two channels were to take different stances on global issues, the organization would be] 'speak[ing] from two sides of its mouth'.

Journalist Brian Whitaker has accused Carmon of presenting false testimony to Congress when he allegedly misrepresented a Gallup poll. Responding to his charge of having an agenda, Carmon wrote "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."

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