An article in Foreign Policy: NEOM, the bloody dream city of Muhammad bin Salman

An article in Foreign Policy magazine described the city of Saudi Arabia as "the city of bloody dreams" for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in response to the killing of the Saudi citizen Abdul Rahim Al-Hwaiti, who protested the displacement operations in the region.

The article was written by researchers Sarah Leah Whitson, former director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, and researcher at Georgetown University Abdullah Al-Awda.

The researchers commented that this Saudi $ 500 billion sophisticated technology city, whose construction requires the forced eviction of the population and vague promises of compensation, said that the killing of the Al-Hwaiti activist who protested the displacement is a reminder to the world of how the kingdom deals with opponents.

A few days after the Saudi Special Forces killed activist Abdul Rahim Al-Huwaiti on April 13, the government issued a statement calling it a "wanted person," and the Saudi authorities and their supporters on the Internet described him as "a terrorist."

The researchers pointed out that, hours before his death, al-Huwaiti, a member of the al-Huwaitat tribe, posted a video on YouTube that he foretold of his death in this way, and that it would be a lenient punishment, as he explained in the video, to protest the government's efforts to force the al-Hawait tribe by force to make room for a city Neum.

And they mentioned that the al-Huwaitat tribe has inhabited the villages and towns of the region for hundreds of years, including the Khriba area, the historical capital in Tabuk Governorate, which is located northwest of Saudi Arabia. Now about 20,000 people are to be evacuated from the area to make way for Neum.

And they added that Ibn Salman had announced in 2017 his vision of the developed dream city that its residents would be global vacationers, emerging technology companies and rich investors, and that the planned city with an area of ​​10.230 square miles - 33 times the size of New York City - is the cornerstone of the Crown Prince's vision plan 2030 to diversify the Saudi economy away from dependence on oil revenues.

Saudi officials promised at the time that the number of robots in the city would be more than humans, with facial recognition technology and mass surveillance to eliminate crime, air taxis instead of on the roads, a luxury beachfront resort, entertainment complex, cruises and a party complex. NEOM will be a miniature country with its own laws.

Accordingly, as the researchers commented, the presence of the Hwaitat tribe will never be proportional to this fascinating global center, and therefore the government will pay them for their lands and displace them from them. But things did not go as planned. The killing of Al-Hweiti this month and the iron-fisted style of the government to force the Al-Huwait tribe to accept the terms of their displacement is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the authoritarian, reckless and ruthless ruler.

The NEOM project
The researchers added that in the face of the possibility of abandoning the lands of their ancestors, as the tribe lived for hundreds of years (long before the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932), protests erupted over the past three months, at least 10 people were arrested, and some fled. From the country.

Instead of consulting with the local community and seeking to integrate them into ambitious plans for the region, the Saudi government has treated its citizens as disposable objects to be replaced by cheerful global settlers.

The researchers said that this is what happens when an "evil ruler" announces that he will decide the future of his country using advice and assistance from American advisors and lawyers who are paid well while they are thousands of miles away, while Saudi citizens who express their opinions, especially the important ones, are ignored or Silence, imprison or exterminate them.

The researchers considered that the circumstances surrounding the killing of Al-Hwaiti require an investigation, and that the government's statement raises more questions than it answers. It is clear that the authorities of Tabuk Municipality, which is supervised by the new national program for community development, began issuing orders to confiscate property in early January, according to local residents.

According to the article, there is no judicial procedure related to reviewing the tribe's objections to the development project, forced displacement of residents, or conditions for compensation. Local sources said that most of the tribe's members rejected the offer, but Al-Huwaitat in particular has become a public face of discontent.

The researchers pointed out that the murder of the mysterious al-Huwaity ignited social networking sites abroad, and the tweeters called him "Shahid Neum", likening him to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Given the Saudi government's lack of credibility in the wake of its persistent lies about Khashoggi, it is unlikely that the public at home or abroad will believe what the government is saying about Al-Hwaiti.

The researchers stated that there is no land law in Saudi Arabia, and there is no clear law in the land expropriation law regarding resettlement and compensation for people who have lost land due to development projects. They commented that it was clear that the government had failed to consult with civil society and affected communities.

They added that there is no indication also that the government has studied how Neum will affect human rights, the environmental impact on the Hawait tribe, as well as the climate impact Neum brings, and the result as expected is conflict and now violence.

Their article concluded that it is highly doubtful whether the NEOM project was applicable remotely, given the global financial meltdown due to the Corona virus and the rise of Saudi debt amid the historic decline in oil prices. They stressed that "the only result that we have seen from this vision of a future city is the promised destruction of a historical society, and the death of a Saudi protester using old methods that have no room for modern concepts of rights and justice."