Karmi studied in a local Qur'anic school in Tulkarm and later attended English College in Jerusalem.

[citation needed] Karmi joined the BBC Arabic Service and worked as a broadcaster for nearly 40 years.

[3] He was the creator, writer, and presenter of a weekly literary program called Qawlun ala Qawl (Saying on a Saying) devoted to Arabic poetry and proverbs.

[4] For years he also wrote a column in Huna London (London Calling), which the embassy in Saudi Arabia used to distribute on behalf of the BBC Arabic Service.

He returned to the Middle East, to Jordan, in 1989 and spent his remaining years working on eleven dictionaries, one Arabic-English, the rest English-Arabic.